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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


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THE 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK: 


A    REPOSITORY    OF 


Useful  Information  and  Select  Reading. 


COMPRISING 

CHOICE    SELECTIONS    OF    PROSE  AND  POETRY,  TALES    AND    ANECDOTES, 

HISTORICAL,    DESCRIPTIVE,  HUMOROUS,    AND    SENTIMENTAL 

PIECES,     MAINLY      CULLED     FROM     THE      VARIOUS 

NEWSPAPERS       AND       PERIODICALS      OF 

THE     PACIFIC     COAST. 


COMPILED    BY 

OSGAE     T.      SHUCK 


ay  he  prize  that  endeared  charm,  so  efiectual  and  safe,  without  which  this  b 
n  his  forehead)  had  long  ago  been  chilled  by  paralysis,  or  set  on  fire  by  insanity 


SAN  FRANCISCO : 
H.H.BANCROFT     &    COMPANY. 

NEW  YORK:  118  WILLIAM  STREET. 
1869. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  iLejear  1SC9. 

BY  II.  H.  BANCROFT  &  COMPANY, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  District  of 
California. 


TO 


SELDE^T    S.    WEIGHT, 

JPROBATE     JUDGE,     $AN    J^RANCISCO, 


tins    VOLUMK    is 


GRATEFULLY      AND      AFFECTIONATELY, 


THE    COMPILER. 


PREFACE. 


THE  following  work  is  the  result  of  the  compiler1  s  glean 
ings  for  his  own  Scrap-  Book  for  a  number  of  years  past. 
It  contains  over  two  hundred  articles,  upon  a  multitude  of 
subjects,  the  greater  part  of  which  emanated  from  the  pens 
of  California  writers.  It  is,  for  this  reason,  called  the 
CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

In  the  selection  of  these  articles,  the  compiler  has  exer 
cised  great  care,  giving  the  date  and  authority  in  all  cases 
when  known  ;  and  in  preparing  the  work  for  the  public, 
he.  has  at  every  step  been  influenced  by  one  motive  —  a 
determination  to  make  the  volume  a  valuable  work  of 
reference  to  professional  and  literary  men,  and  an  accept 
able  companion  in  the  family  circle,  not  only  in  California, 
but  wherever  it  may  find  its  way. 

The  compiler  desires  to  express  his  thanks  to  Messrs. 
HENRY  E.  HIGHTON  and  JAMES  G.  CARSON,  of  San  Fran 
cisco,  for  valuable  assistance  rendered  him  in  the  prepara 
tion  of  this  volume. 

0.  T.  S. 


SAN  FHANCISCO,  November,  18G8. 


CLASSIFIED  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS, 


AGRICULTURAL. 

Address  of  Starr  King  at  San  Joaquin  Valley  Fair 104 

Address  of  Hon.  Joseph  W.  Winans  before  the  State  Agricultural  Society.  313 

Agriculture  in  Italy— Geo.  P.  Marsh 161 

Irrigating  Canals  at  the  Old  Missions 458 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL. 

A  Lost  World 45 

America,  Artistic  Evidences  of  a  remote  Colonization  of — Dr.  Gibbons. . .  .  629 

America,  First  Inhabitants  of 254 

Ancient  half-civilized  Indians  in  California — A.  S.  Taylor 399 

Archaeology  of  North  America — Edinburgh  Review 655 

Arizona,  Remains  of  a  former  Civilization 310 

Pre-Historic  Remains  of  the  Mississippi  Valley — De  Haas 647 

BIOGRAPHICAL  AND  PERSONAL. 

Bent,  Lieut.,  discovers  Gulf  Stream  of  the  Pacific 434 

Burbank,  John,  Eulogy  on— Oscar  T.  Shuck 257 

Clay,  Henry;   National  Men  of  America — Gen.  Shields 103 

Fremont  and  Sloat — Edmund  Randolph 326 

Gibbes,  George,  Hard-working  California  Author 165 

Jackson,  Andrew;   National  Men  of  America— Gen.  Shields 102 

Kino,  Founder  of  Arizona 261 

Law,  John,  Sketch  of  his  Mississippi  Scheme 252 

National  Men  of  America  :  Clay,  Jackson,  and  Webster— Gen.  Shields 102 

Santa  Anna,  his  Remarkable  Career 406 

Schoolcraft,  Henry  R 460 

Serra,  Junipero,  Founder  of  California 26 

Sloat,  Commodore,  Report  of  the  Pioneer  Society  on  his  Death 514 

Sloat,  Commodore  ;   Fremont  and  Sloat — Edmund  Randolph 326 

Smith,  the  Mormon  Leader 543 

Stockton.  Commodore.  Reminiscences  of 60.'! 

Vanderbilts,  The,  Early  Incidents,  &c 616 

Webster,  Daniel ;  National  Men  of  America — Gen.  Shields 102 

DESCRIPTIVE. 

A  Beautiful  Country,  Southern  California 264 

Amazon,  The  Valley  of  the 167 

An  Artist's  Dream  of  the  Future  of  California — By  Rev.  John  Auderson, 

quoted  in  Rev.  T.  Starr  King's  Address 120 


CONTENTS. 


A  Rainy  Day  in  the  Sierra  Buttes 327 

Azore  Islands.  Description  of  the — "  Mark  Twain" 121 

California,  a  Rhapsody 383 

Dead  Sea  of  California,  Mono  Lake 171 

Death  Valley 41 1 

Ganges,  Great  Canal  of  the— Wm.  II.  Bryan 4G2 

Great  Earthquake  of  New  Madrid,  Missouri 330 

Hawaiian  Islands,  Description  of  the 333 

Meadow  Lake,  Sketch  of— Hon.  F.  Tilford 358 

Mono  Lake,  the  Dead  Sea  of  California 171 

Night  Scene  near  Mount  Shasta 46p7 

Picture  of  California  in  Spring  Time — Rev.  T.  Starr  King 47 

San  Joaquin  Valley 490 

Shoshone  Falls  of  Idaho 507 

Tahoe  Lake,  Graphic  Description  of 497 

"Wonders  of  the  Coral  Reefs — J.  F.  Bowman 516 

Yosemite,  a  Trip  to,  A  Lady's  Account  of 550 

Zodiacal  Light  as  seen  in  California 578 

GEOLOGICAL. 

California,  seen  through  a  Geologist's  Eyes 50 

Geological  Formation  of  the  River  Amazon 546 

Geological  Survey  of  California 492 

Geology  ;   A  Lecture — Prof.  J.  D.  Whitney 265 

Geology  of  the  Globe 41 2 

HISTORICAL. 

Anniversary  of  the  Arrival  of  the  Steamer  California 176 

Anniversary  of  the  Bear  Flag 270 

Anniversary  (88th)  cf  the  Foundation  of  the  San  Francisco  Missions 60 

Bay  of  San  Francisco,  Discovery  of  the 60 

California.  Aboriginal  Inhabitants  of — Jacob  Baegert 128 

California,  Early  Cities  of 354 

California,  Earthquakes  in,  prior  to  ]8G4 — Dr.   Trask 274 

California,  Expulsion  of  Jesuits  from,  1767 — A.  S.  Taylor 417 

California,  Kotzebue's  Visit  to 469 

California,  Prices  in,  1849 494 

California,  The  Old  Giants  of 486 

California,  War  in,  in  1846 270 

Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade— S.  C.  Massett 58 

Franciscan  Order,  The G2 

Interesting  Event  in  California  History 67 

Loss  of  Steamer  San  Francisco 471 

Oregon  Territory,  How  it  was  saved  to  the  United  States 133 

Origin  of  the  Western  Prairies — M.  Leo  Losquereus 179 

Origin  of  Names  of  Days  of  the  Week ' 279 

Pioneer  Overlariders  of  1841 1 80 

Presidents  of  the  United  States,  with  List  of  all  Defeated  Candidates 555 

San  Francisco,  Patron  Saint  of. Gl 

San  Francisco  Twenty  Years  ago  (1848) 606 


CONTEXTS.  9 

PAGE 

Tin  Mines,  The,  How  they  were  Discovered 472 

HUMOROUS. 

A  Drove  of  Bulls — Harper's  Magazine 1 84 

Amusing  Experiment  on  Rats 652 

Great  Oratorical  Feat 495 

Lines  Suggested  by  Reading  Mark  Twain's  Letters  from  Pallistyrie — J.  F. 

Bowman 636 

Mining  Jury  Dinner 281 

Model  Report  of  a  Mining  Engineer 357 

Recipes  for  Making  Poetry 135 

To  the  Loadstone  of  my  Life 651 

The  Pliocene  Skull— Frank  Bret  Harte 430 

The  Vulture — After  Edgar  A.  Poe 532 

Touching  Tribute  to  Woman 653 

Westernisms— Col.  McClure 558 

INSTRUCTIVE. 

Antidote  for  Poison 143 

Antidote  for  Poison-Oak — Dr.  C.  A.  Canfield 41 

California  Wines — Matthew  Keller 137 

Commerce  of  the  World 70 

Cryptograph  Table 72 

Difference  in  Time  between  Old  and  New  Style — Thos.  Tennent 577 

Do  Metals  Grow 282 

Gulf  Stream,  The 432 

Gulf  Stream  of  the  Pacific,  The 434 

How  to  Get  Rich — Geu.  John  Bidwell 518 

Japan,  Its  Resources 521 

Mathematics,  An  Easay  upon — Professor  C.  T.  Leonard 185 

Mosaics,  How  They  Are  Made 297 

Nose  Bleed 557 

Secret  Writing  with  Cryptograph  Table 72 

Underground  Streams — Geo.  A.  Shufeldt 5G1 

Useful  Plants,  The  Number  of.    435 

Uses  of  Mountains — John  Ruskin 641 

Valuable  Table,  A 364 

Wandering  Jew,  The 5G7 

Wind,  Force  and  Velocity  of 548 

LITERARY  CURIOSITIES. 

A  Queer  Old  Rhyme 197 

A  Verbal  Whimsey 199 

Curiosities  of  the  English  Language 199 

Matrimony 197 

The  Lord's  Prayer '. 198 

MINES  AND  MIXING. 

Discovery  of  Gold  in  California 76 

First  Gold  Mine,  The 436 

First  Gold  Mining  in  California 83 

Gold  Digging  in  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth 525 


10  CONTENTS. 

PAGH 

Mines  in  England,  Depth  of 568 

Quartz  Mining  in  Ancient  Egypt 144 

Quartz  Mining  Two  Thousand  Years  ago 209 

Silver  in  Use  among  Men,  Amount  of — Dr.  P  H.  Yan  Der  Weyde 367 

SPEECHES,    ORATIONS,    AND   ADDRESSES. 

Speech  of  E.  R.  Highton,  Esq.,  on  Benevolence  and  Christian  Enterprise.  .    141 

Speeches  of  Captain  Oliver  Eldridge 584 

"  Hall  McAllister,  Esq., 585 

"  Ex-Governor  Leland  Stanford 590 

"  Rev.  Dr.  A.  L.  Stone,  and 592 

"  Rev.  Horatio  Stebbins,  at  the 595 

Great  China  Mail  Banquet,  at  San  Francisco,  Dec.  31,  1866...  .   584 

Speeches  of  Wm.  Lane  Booker,  British  Consul 244 

"  Hon.  Newton  Booth 240 

"  "     Anson  Burlingame 229 

"  "     Delos  Lake 223 

"  "     Edward  Tompkins 238 

"  Governor  H.  II.  Haight 228 

"  General  H.  W.  Halleck,  and 226 

Embassador  Chili  Ttijen,  at  the 234 

Chinese  Embassy  Banquet,  at  San  Francisco,  California,  1868..    219 
Address  of  Hon.  Newton  Booth,  at  the  Mechanics'  Fair,  at  San  Francisco.   370 
Addresses  of  Gov.  Leland  Stanford,  and  Hon.  A.  M.  Crane,  at  the  Inaugura 
tion  Ceremonies  of  the  Great  Pacific  R.  R.,  Sacramento.  301,  304 

"  Rev.  T.  Starr  King,  at  San  Joaquin  Valley  Fair,  in  1862 104 

"  Hon.  Joseph  "W.  Winans,  before  the  State  Agricultural  Society 

at  Sacramento 313 

Oration  of  Colonel  E.  D.  Baker,  on  the  Atlantic  Cable,  at  San  Francisco, 

Sept.,   1858 17 

Oration  of  Rev.  J.  A.  Benton,  at  fifth  Commencement  Exercises  of  College 

of  California,  1868 284 

Extract  from  Oration  of  Edmund  Randolph,   before  California  Pioneers, 

San  Francisco,  1 860 326 

Conclusion  of  Oration  of  Hon.  John  B.  Felton,  at  the  Dedication  of  New 

Mercantile  Library  Building,  San  Francisco,  1868 439 

SENTIMENTAL   AND  PATHETIC. 

Apostrophe  to  Water — Paul  Denton 85 

A  Midsummer  Night — Herbert  C.  Dorr , 294 

California,  A  Poem — Bayard  Taylor 437 

Child  Land — Lyman  R.  Goodman 444 

Cleopatra— W.  W.  Story 212 

Dirge  for  the  Beautiful 520 

Dried  Wild-Flower  in  an  old  School-Book,  Lines  on  a 75 

Glimpses — Emilie  La wson 540 

Home  Pictures — Belle  W.  Cooke 548 

Katie  Lee  and  Willie  Gray 560 

Mary  Brown— L.  F.  Wells 481 

Requiem  of  the  Year — Hon.  Joseph  W.  Winang -535 


CONTENTS.  11 

PAGK 

Rosalie— Colonel  B.  F.  Washington 378 

Santa  Margarita — Annie  A.  Fitzgerald 635 

Sic  Yita 625 

Song  of  Edward  Pollock— W.  H.  Rhodes 30 

The  Beautiful— Goethe 482 

The  Fair  Tarnbourinist — Lyman  R.  Goodman 145 

The  Filial  Feeling — Chas.  Lamb 579 

The  Parting  Hour — Edward  Pollock 575 

The  Ruby  Heart— E.  R.  Sill 502 

The  Soldier's  Farewell .  •  511 

The  Sweet-Brier—Mary  Viola  Tingley 582 

Tranquillity 603 

Vacation — Chas.  Warren  Stoddard 649 

SCIENTIFIC. 

A  Continent  covered  with  Ice — Prof.  Louis  Agassiz 216 

Final  Fate  of  the  Universe 87 

Medical  Topography  and  Epidemics  of  California— Dr.  Thos.  M.  Logan.  . .  .  295 

Peaks,  Parks,  and  Plains  of  Colorado — Professor  Powell 380 

San  Francisco  Earthquakes — Dr.  John  A.  Veatch 476 

The  Milky  Way 438 

Why  it  Rains— E.  C.  Kemble 31 

ANECDOTES,  TALES,  AND  STORIES. 

An  Incident  in  the  Life  of  a  Miner 580 

Origin  of  Day  and  Martin's  Blacking 501 

The  Eye  of  the  Commander:  A  New  Year's  Legend  of  Spanish  California — 

Frank  Bret  Harte 89 

Thrilling  Adventure  with  a  Burglar 440 

The  Indian  Woman's  Love :  A  Tale  of  Oregon — A.  Delano 618 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

A  Brief  History,  in  Three  Parts,  with  a  Sequel 645 

An  Historical  Beauty 510 

A  Mountain  View 642 

A  Toad  Undressing — Audubou 513 

Atlantic  Cable,  The  ;  A  Poem— John  R.  Ridge 483 

Big  Waves 293 

Brook-Trouting 217 

California 383 

California  Children— Bayard  Taylor 480 

California  Poets 480 

California  Scenery 442 

California;  Reminiscence  and  Capabilities— By  A.  Delano  ("  Old  Block"). .  146 

California,  Climate  of '. 643 

California,  Ancient  Mint  of. 299 

California,  Early  Scenes  in >  •  504 

California,  Mountains  of 384 

Casserly,  Hon.  Eugene,  Letter  of,  read  at  Chinese  Embassy  Banquet,  San 

Francisco 236 

China  Mail  Banquet 584 


12  CONTENTS. 

PACK 

Chinese  Embassy  Banquet .219 

City  by  the  Golden  Gate,  The — Ina  D.  Coolbrith 473 

Closing  Scene,  The — Thos.  Buchanan  Read 693 

Cry  of  a  Lost  Soul — John  G.  Whittier 392 

Cricket,  The 638 

Curious  Optical  Effect 1 60 

Disunion  •  A  Poem  written  in  1858 — Edward  Pollock 599 

Discoveries 486 

Earthquakes  in  the  Interior 386 

Earthquake  Waves  on  the  Pacific 386 

Existence  or  Life — Rev.  T.  Starr  King 390 

Gold  in  the  World,  Bulk  of 391 

Golden  Hegira.  The 487 

Happy  Christian  Home — Rev.  Dr.  Eells 541 

Job  a  Printer 64 1 

Knights  of  the  Quill 245 

Life — Rev.  Dr.  Chas.  Wads  worth 443 

Lines  on  an  Autopsical  Examination 638 

Mission  of  Teachers— Geo.  W.  Minns 601 

Nevada:  A  Poem — Joseph  T.  Goodman 405 

No  Baby  in  the  House — Clara  Dolliver 545 

On  the  Beach — John  Swett 654 

Our  Baby 439 

Pacific  Railroad,  Inauguration  Ceremonies 300 

Philosopher  on  Love,  A — Ralph  Waldo  Emerson 308 

Power  of  Sea-Breakers 246 

Prayer  of  Sir  Robert  Peel 631 

Remarkable  Escapes  of  Eminent  Men .  247 

Remarkable  Masonic  Incident 100 

Remarks  on  Hell — Henry  Ward  Beecher 249 

"  Salatia"— W.  A.  Kendall 640 

Scout  Boat  on  the  Look-out , .  ( 393 

Significant  Names 394 

Shrubbery  about  the  Homestead .  615 

Spiritualism,  Professor  Faraday  upon 632 

Stirring  Thoughts— Rev.  M.  C.  Briggs , 153 

Tamalpais — Chas.  Warren  Stoddard 443 

The  East  and  the  West — Theodore  Winthrop 65 

The  Famous  Mississippi  Scheme .  252 

The  Miner — John  Swett _  605 

The  Chandos  Picture — Edward  Pollock 98 

Three  Words  of  Strength— Schiller 653 

Volcanic  Eruptions 388 

Wonderful  Case,  A 395 

Wonders  of  the  World,  One  of  the  Seven  Unearthed - 309 

Yosemite,  Lecture  on — Rev.  T.  Starr  King 446 

Zodiacal  Light  of  California .  573 


LIST   OF   WRITERS  AND   SPEAKERS   QUOTED 
IN   THIS  VOLUME. 


Agassiz,  Professor  Louis. 
Anderson,  Rev.  John. 
Audubon,  John  James. 

Baegert,  Jacob. 
Baker,  General  E.  D. 
Beecher,  Rev.  Henry  Ward. 
Benton,  Rev.  J.  A. 
Bidwell,  Hon.  John. 
Blake,  Professor  W.  P. 
Booker,  William  Lane. 
Booth,  Hon.  Newton. 
Bowman,  J.  F. 
Briggs,  Rev.  M.  C. 
Bryan.  William  H. 
Burlingame,  Hon.  Anson. 

Canfield,  Dr.  C.  A. 

Casserly,  Hon.  Eugene. 

Clemens,  Samuel  ("Mark  Twain''). 

Coolbrith,  Ina  D. 

Cooke,  Belle  W. 

Crane,  A.  M. 

De  Haas,  W. 

Delano,  A.  (u  Old  Block"). 

Denton.  Paul. 

Dolliver,  Clara. 

Dorr,  Herbert  C. 

Bells,  Rev.  James,  D.  D. 
Eldridge,  Captain  Oliver. 
Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo. 

Faraday,  Professor  M. 
Feiton,  lion.  John  B. 
Fitzgerald,  Annie  A. 

Gibbons,  Dr. 
Goethe. 

Goodman,  Joseph  T. 
Goodman,  Lyman  R. 

Haight.  Governor  H.  H. 
Hal'ieck,  General  II.  W. 
Harlow,  Dr.  John  M. 
Harte,  Frank  Bret. 
Higgins,  S.  G. 
Highton,  E  R. 

Keller,  Matthew. 
Kemble,  E.  C. 
Kendall,  W.  A. 
King,  Rev.  T.  Starr. 


Lake,  Hon.  Delos. 
Lamartine. 
Lamb,  Charles. 
Lawson,  Emilie. 
Leonard.  Professor  C.  T. 
Logan,  Dr.  Thomas  M. 
Losquereus,  M.  Leo. 

Marsh.  George  P. 
Massett,  Stephen. 
McAllister,  Hall. 
McClure,  Colonei. 
Minns,  George  W. 

Pickett,  C.  E. 
Pollock,  Edward. 
Powell,  Professor. 

Randolph,  Edmund. 
Read.  Thomas  Buchanan. 
Rhodes,  W.  H. 
Ridge,  John  R. 
Ruskin,  John. 

Schiller. 

Shields,  General  James 

Shuck,  Oscar  T. 

Shufeldt.  George  A. 

Sill,  E.  R. 

Stanford.  Governor  Leland 

Stebbius,  Rev.  Horatio. 

Stoddard,  Charts  Warren. 

Stone,  Rev.  Di.  A.  L. 

Svvett,  John. 

';  Tajen,  Chili." 
Taylor,  Alexander  S. 
Taylor,  Bayard. 
Tennent,  Thomas. 
Tilford,  Hon.  F. 
Tingley,  Mary  Viola. 
Tompkins,  Edward. 
Trask,  Dr. 

Van  Der  Weyde,  Dr.  P.  H, 
Veatch,  Dr.  John  A. 

Wadsworth,  Rev.  Dr.  0. 
Washington,  Colonel  B.  F. 
Wells,  L.  F. 

Whitney,  Professor  J.  D. 
Whittier,  John  G. 
Winans,  Hon.  J.  W. 
Winthrop,  Theodore. 


LIST  OF  NEWSPAPERS  AND  MAGAZINES 
QUOTED  IN  THIS  VOLUME. 


SAN  FRANCISCO — 
Alta  California. 
Daily  Evening  Bulletin. 
Daily  Herald. 
Daily  Evening  Mirror. 
Daily  Times. 
Morning  Call. 
Daily  Examiner. 
California  Chronicle. 
Dramatic  Chronicle. 
Democratic  Press. 
The  Occident. 
The  Pacific. 
The  News  Letter. 
Spirit  of  the  Times. 
Mining  and  Scientific  Press. 
Overland  Monthly. 
The  Golden  City. 
Weekly  Mercury. 
Californian. 
Pioneer  Magazine. 

Sacramento  Daily  Union. 

State  Capital  Reporter,  Sacramento. 

Mountain  Democrat,  Placerville. 
Sierra  Citizen,  Dowuieville. 
Santa  Cruz  Sentinel. 
Stockton  Independent. 
Placerville  Index. 
Oakland  News. 
Los  Angeles  Star. 
Santa  Barbara  Gazette. 
San  Rafael  Journal. 
Yreka  Union. 
Colusa  Sun. 
Sonora  Democrat. 


Territorial  Enterprise,  Virginia,  Xev. 
Reese  River  Reveille,  Austin,  Nev. 
Humboldt  Register,  Unionville,  Nev. 
Old  Pah  Utah,  Washoe  City,  Nev. 

Oregon  Statesman. 
Boise  News. 

New  York  Herald. 

New  York  Sun. 

New  York  Tribune. 

New  York  Journal  of  Commerce. 

New  York  Evening  Post. 

American  Journal  of  Mining. 

Scientific  American. 

Harper's  Magazine. 

Homans'  Bankers'  Magazine. 

Frank  Leslie's  Chimney  Corner. 

Rochester  Union. 
Boston  Traveler. 
Boston  Transcript. 
Chicago  Tribune. 
Rural  Register. 
Pittsburgh  Dispatch. 
Colorado  Register. 
Atlantic  Monthly. 
St.  Louis  Democrat. 

Once-A-Week. 
All  the  Year  Round. 
Black  wood's  Magazine. 
Illustrated  London  News. 
Frazer's  Magazine. 
Edinburgh  Review. 

Paris  Temps. 


THK 

ftFIVBESITT] 

'"PTT'P1 
1x1  rj 

CALIFORNIA    SCRAP-BOOK. 


ORATION  BY  COL.  E.  D.  BAKER,  DELIVERED  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO,  ON 
27TII  SEPTEMBER,  1858,  ON  OCCASION  OF  THE  PUBLIC  CELEBRA 
TION  OF  LAYING  THE  ATLANTIC  TELEGRAPH. 


ELLOW-CITIZENS  :—  Amid  the  general  joy 
I  that  thrills  throughout  the  civilized  world,  we 
are  here  to  bear  our  part.  The  great  enterprise 
of  the  age  has  been  successfully  accomplished. 
Thought  has  bridged  the  Atlantic,  and  cleaves 
its  unfettered  path  across  the  sea— winged  by  the  lightning 
and  guarded  by  the  billow.  Though  remote  from  the  shores 
that  first  witnessed  the  deed,  we  feel  the  impulse  and  swell 
the  paean  ;  as  in  the  frame  of  man,  the  nervous  sensibility 
is  greatest  at  the  extremity  of  the  body  so  we,  distant  dwell 
ers  on  the  Pacific  coast,  feel  yet  more  keenly  than  the  com 
munities  which  form  the  centers  of  civilization,  the  great 
ness  of  the  present  success,  and  the  splendor  of  the  advan 
cing  future. 

The  transmission  of  intelligence  by  electric  forces  is  per 
haps  the  most  striking  of  all  the  manifestations  of  human 
power,  in  compelling  the  elements  to  the  service  of  man. 
The  history  of  the  discovery  is  a  monument  to  the  sagacity, 
the  practical  observation,  the  inductive  power  of  the  men 
whose  names  have  become  famous  and  immortal.  The 
application  to  the  uses  of  mankind  is  scarcely  less  wonder 
ful,  and  the  late  extension  across  a  vast  ocean,  ranks  its 
projectors,  and  accomplishes  with  the  benefactors  of  their 
race.  We  repeat  here  to-day  the  names  of  Franklin,  and 


18  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Morse,  and  Field.  We  echo  the  sentiments  of  generous 
pride,  most  felt  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  at 
the  associated  glory  of  her  sons.  But  we  know,  that  this 
renown  will  spread  wherever  their  deeds  convey  blessings 
to  the  human  race,  that  like  their  own  works  it  will  extend 
beyond  ocean  and  deserts,  and  like  these  works,  will  re 
main  to  late  and  successive  generations. 

The  history  of  the  Atlantic  Telegraph  is  fortunately 
familiar  to  most  of  this  auditory.  For  more  than  a  hun 
dred  years  it  has  been  known  that  the  velocity  of  electricity 
was  nearly  instantaneous.  It  was  found  that  the  electricty 
of  the  clouds,  and  that  produced  by  electric  excitation, 
was  identical ;  next  followed  the  means  for  its  creation, 
and  the  mechanism  of  transmission.  Its  concentration  was 
found  in  the  corrosion  of  metals  in  acids,  and  the  use  of  the 
voltaic  pile  ;  its  transmission  was  completed  by  Morse  in 
1843,  and  it  was  reserved  to  Field  to  guide  it  across  the 
Atlantic.  Here,  as  in  all  other  scientific  results,  you  find 
the  wonder-working  power  of  observation  and  induction  ; 
and  nowhere  in  the  history  of  man  is  the  power  of  Art— 
action,  directed  by  Science— knowledge  systematized— so 
signally  and  beautifully  obvious.  I  leave  to  the  gifted 
friend  who  will  follow  me,  in  his  peculiar  department,  the 
appropriate  description  of  the  wonders  of  the  deep  seaway  ; 
of  the  silent  shores  beneath  ;  of  sunless  caverns  and  sub 
marine  plains.  It  is  for  others  to  describe  the  solitudes  of  the 
nether  deep.  Yet  who  is  there  whose  imagination  does  not 
kindle  at  the  idea  that  every  thought  which  springs  along 
the  wires  vibrates  in  those  palaces  of  the  ocean  where  the 
billows  cease  to  roll  and  light  fails  to  penetrate  \ 

"From  the  dark,  unfathomed  caves  of  ocean1'  the  pearl 
that  heaves  upon  the  breast  of  beauty  is  dragged  to  the 
glare  of  day.  There,  the  unburied  dead  lie  waiting  for 
the  resurrection  morning,  while  above  them  the  winds  wail 
their  perpetual  requiem  ;  there  the  lost  treasures  of  India 
and  Peru  are  forever  buried  ;  there,  the  wrecks  of  the 
Armada  and  Trafalgar  are  forever  whelmed. 

What  flags  and  what  trophies  are  floating  free, 
In  the  shadowy  depths  of  the  silent  sea ! 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  19 

But  amid  these  scattered  relics  of  the  buried  Past,  over 
shell -formed  shores  and  wave- worn  crags,  the  gleaming 
Thought  darts  it  way.  Amid  the  monsters  of  the  deep, 
amid  the  sporting  myriads  and  countless  armies  of  the  sea, 
the  single  link  that  unites  two  worlds,  conveys  the  man 
date  of  a  king  or  the  message  of  a  lover.  Of  old,  the  Greek 
loved  to  believe  that  Neptune  ruled  the  ocean,  and 
stretched  his  trident  over  the  remotest  surge.  The  fiction 
has  become  reality  ;  but  man  has  become  the  monarch  of 
the  wave,  and  his  trident  is  a  single  wire  ! 

Fellow-citizens :  The  scene  in  which  we  each  bear  a  part 
to-day  is  one  peculiar,  it  is  true,  to  the  event  which  we 
celebrate  ;  but  it  is  also  very  remarkable  in  many  and 
varied  aspects. 

Never  before  has  there  been  on  the  Pacific  coast  such  an 
expression  of  popular  delight.  We  celebrate  the  birthday 
of  a  nation  with  signal  rejoicing  ;  but  vast  numbers  who 
are  here  to-day  can  find  no  place  in  its  processions,  and 
perhaps  wonder  at  its  enthusiasm  ;  we  celebrate  great  vic 
tories,  which  give  new  names  to  our  history  and  new  stars 
to  our  banner — these  are  but  national  triumphs  ;  but  to 
day,  the  joy  is  universal  ;  the  procession  represents  the 
world — all  creeds,  all  races,  all  languages  are  here  ;  every 
vocation  of  civilized  life  mingles  in  the  shout  and  welcomes 
the  deed.  The  minister  of  religion  sees  the  Bow  of  Promise 
reflected  under  the  sea,  which  speaks  of  universal  peace  ; 
the  statesman  perceives  another  lengthening  avenue  for  the 
march  of  free  principles  ;  the  magistrate  can  see  here  new 
guards  to  the  rights  of  society  and  property,  and  a  wide  field 
for  the  spread  of  international  law  ;  the  poet  kindles  at  the 
dream  of  a  great  republic  of  letters  tending  toward  a  uni 
versal  language — and  the  star  of  science  finds  a  pledge 
that  individual  enterprise  may  yet  embody  his  discoveries 
in  beneficent  and  world-wide  action. 

The  mechanic  walks  with  a  freer  step  and  a  more  con 
scious  part,  for  it  is  his  skill  which  has  overcome  the 
raging. sea  and  the  stormy  shore;  and  labor,  toil-stained 
and  sun-browned  labor,  claims  the  triumph  as  his  own  in 
a  twofold  right.  First,  because  without  patient  enduring 


20  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

toil,  there  could  be  neither  discovery,  invention,  applica 
tion,  or  extension  ;  and  again,  because  whatever  spreads 
the  blessings  of  peace  and  knowledge,  comes  home  to  his 
hearth  and  his  heart. 

Surrounded,  then,  as  I  am  by  the  representatives  of  all 
civilized  nations,  let  me  express  in  a  few  brief  words  some 
of  the  thoughts  that  are  struggling  for  utterance  upon  your 
lips  as  you  contemplate  the"  great  event  of  the  century. 
Our  first  conviction  is  that  the  resources  of  the  human  mind 
and  the  energies  of  the  human  will  are  boundless  and 
illimitable  ;  from  the  time  when  the  new  philosophy,  of 
which  Francis  Bacon  was  the  great  exponent,  became 
firmly  written  in  a  fe"w  minds,  the  course  of  human  pro 
gress  has  been  unfettered — each  established  fact,  each  new 
discovery,  each  complete  induction  is  a  new  weapon  from 
the  armory  of  truth  ;  the  march  can  not  retrograde ;  the 
human  mind  will  never  go  back  ;  the  question  as  to  the  re 
turn  of  barbarism  is  forever  at  rest.  If  England  were  to 
sink  beneath  the  ocean,  she  hath  planted  the  germ  of  her 
thought  in  many  a  fair  land  beside,  and  the  tree  will 
shadow  the  whole  earth.  If  the  whole  population  of 
America  were  to  die  in  a  day,  a  new  migration  would  re- 
people  it ;  not  with  living  forms  alone,  but  with  living 
thought,  bright  streams  from  the  fountains  of  all  nations. 

Oh  !  Science,  thou  thought-clad  leader  of  the  company  of 
pure  and  great  souls,  that  toil  for  their  race  and  love  their 
kinds,  measurer  of  the  depths  of  earth  and  the  recesses  of 
heaven  !  Apostle  of  civilization— handmaid  of  religion- 
teacher  of  human  equality  and  human  right — perpetual  wit 
ness  for  the  Divine  wisdom — be  ever  as  now,  the  great 
minister  of  peace — let  thy  starry  brow  and  benign  front  still 
gleam  in  the  van  of  progress,  brighter  than  the  sword  of  the 
conqueror,  and  welcome  as  the  light  of  heaven  ! 

The  commercial  benefits  to  accrue  to  all  nations  from  in 
stantaneous  communication  are  too  apparent  to  permit  much 
remark  ;  the  convenience  of  the  merchant,  the  correspond 
ence  of  demand  and  supply,  the  quick  return  of  values,  the 
more  immediate  apprehension  of  the  condition  of  the  world, 
are  among  the  direct  results  most  obvious  to  all  men  ;  but 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  21 

these  are  at  last  mere  agencies  for  a  superior  good,  and  are 
but  the  heralds  of  the  great  ameliorations  to  follow  in  the 
stately  march. 

The  great  enemy  of  commerce,  and  indeed  of  the  human 
race,  is  war.  Sometimes  ennobling  to  individuals  and 
nations,  it  is  more  frequently  the  offspring  of  a  narrow 
nationality  and  inveterate  prejudice.  If  it  enlists  in  its 
service  some  of  the  noblest  qualities  of  the  human  heart,  it 
too  often  perverts  them  to  the  service  of  a  despot.  From 
the  earliest  ages,  a  chain  of  mountains,  or  a  line  of  a  river, 
made  men  strangers,  if  not  enemies.  Whatever,  therefore, 
opens  communication  and  creates  interchange  of  ideas, 
counteracts  the  sanguinary  tendencies  of  mankind,  and 
does  its  part  to  "beat  the  sword  into  the  plowshare." 
We  hail,  therefore,  as  we  trust,  in  the  event  we  commemo 
rate,  a  happier  era  in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  read  in 
the  omens  attendant  on  its  completion  an  augury  of  perpet 
ual  peace. 

The  spectacle  which  marked  the  moment  when  the  cable 
was  first  dropped  in  the  deep  sea  was  one  of  absorbing 
interest,  Two  stately  ships  of  different  and  once  hostile 
nations,  bore  the  precious  freight,  Meeting  in  mid-ocean 
they  exchanged  the  courtesies  of  their  gallant  profession- 
each  bore  the  flag  of  St.  George,  each  carried  the  flowing 
stripes  and  blazing  stars— on  each  deck  that  martial  band 
bowed  reverently  in  prayer  to  the  Great  Ruler  of  the  tem 
pest  :  exact  in  order,  perfect  in  discipline,  they  waited  the 
auspicious  moment  to  seek  the  distant  shore.  Well  were 
those  noble  vessels  named — the  one  Niagara,  with  a  force 
resistless  as  our  own  cataract  ;  the  other  Agamemnon,  "the 
king  of  men,"  as  constant  in  purpose,  as  resolute  in  trial, 
as  the  great  leader  of  the  Trojan  war.  Right  well,  oh  !  gal 
lant  crew,  have  you  fulfilled  your  trust !  Favoring  were 
the  gales  and  smooth  the  seas  that  bore  you  to  the  land  ; 
and  oh  !  if  the  wish  and  prayer  of  the  good  and  wise  of  all 
the  earth  may  avail,  your  high  and  peaceful  mission  shall 
remain  forever  perfect,  and  those  triumphant  standards  so 
long  shadowing  the  earth  with  their  glory,  shall  wave  in 
united  folds  as  long  as  the  Homeric  story  shall  be  remem- 


22  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

bered  among  men — or  the  thunders  of  Niagara  reverberate 
above  its  arch  of  spray. 

It  is  impossible,  fellow-citizens,  within  such  limits  as  the 
nature  of  this  assemblage  indicates,  to  portray  the  various 
modes  in  which  the  whole  human  race  are  to  be  impelled 
on  the  march  of  progress  by  the  telegraphic  union  of  the 
two  nations  ;  but  I  can  not  forget  where  I  stand,  nor  the 
audience  I  address.  The  Atlantic  Telegraph  is  but  one 
link  in  a  line  of  thought  which  is  to  bind  the  world  ;  the 
next  link  is  to  unite  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific.  Who  doubts 
that  this  union  is  near  at  hand  ?  Have  we  no  other  Fields? 
Shall  the  skill  which  sounded  the  Atlantic,  not  scale  the 
Sierra  Nevada?  Is  the  rolling  plain  more  dangerous  than 
the  rolling  deep  \  Shall  science  repose  upon  its  laurels,  or 
achievement  faint  by  the  Atlantic  shore  ?  Let  us  do  our 
part ;  let  our  energy,  long  dormant,  awake  !  Let  us  be 
again  the  men  we  were  when  we  planted  an  empire.  We 
are  in  the  highway  of  commerce  ;  let  us  widen  the  track — 
one  effort  more,  and  science  will  span  the  world.  While  I 
speak,  there  comes  to  us,  borne  on  every  blast,  from  the  east 
and  from  the  west,  high  tidings  of  civilization,  toleration 
arid  freedom.  In  England  the  Jews  are  restored  to  all  the 
privileges  of  citizens,  and  the  last  step  in  the  path  of  reli 
gious  toleration  is  taken.  The  Emperor  of  Russia  has  de 
creed  the  emancipation  of  his  serfs,  and  the  first  movement 
for  civil  liberty  is  begun.  China  opens  her  ports,  and  com 
merce  and  Christianity  will  penetrate  the  East.  Japan 
sends  her  embassador  to  America,  and  America  will  return 
the  blessings  of  civilization  to  Japan.  Oh !  human  heart 
and  human  hope  !  never  before  in  all  your  history  did  ye 
so  throb  with  promise  for  the  race  ;  never  before  did  }^e  so 
rise  to  the  inspiration  of  a  prophet  in  the  majesty  of  your 
prediction. 

Fellow-citizens  :  We  have  a  just  and  generous  pride  in 
the  great  achievement  we  are  here  to  commemorate.  We 
rejoice  in  the  manly  energy,  the  indomitable  will,  that 
pushed  it  forward  to  success.  We  admire  the  skillful 
adaptation  and  application  of  the  forces  of  nature  to  the 
uses  of  mankind  ;  we  reverence  the  great  thinkers  whose 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  23 

observation  swept  through  the  universe  for  facts  and  events, 
and  whose  patient  wisdom  traced  and  evolved  the  general 
law.  Yet,  more  than  this,  we  turn,  with  wonder  and  de 
light,  to  behold,  on  every  hand,  the  results  of  scientific 
method  everywhere  visible  and  everywhere  increasing ; 
but,  amid  that  wonder  and  delight,  we  turn  to  a  still  greater 
wonder — the  human  mind  itself  !  Who  shall  now  stay  its 
progress  ?  What  shall  impede  its  career  ?  ISTo  longer  tram 
meled  by  theories  or  oppressed  by  the  despotism  of  author 
ity — grasping,  at  the  very  vestibule,  the  key  to  knowledge, 
its  advance,  though  gradual,  is  but  the  more  sure.  It  is 
engaged  in  a  perpetual  warfare,  but  its  empire  is  perpet 
ually  enlarging.  No  fact  is  forgotten,  no  truth  is  lost,  no 
induction  falls  to  the  ground ;  it  is  as  industrious  as  the 
sun — it  is  as  restless  as  the  sea — it  is  as  universal  as  the 
race  itself.  It  is  boundless  in  its  ambition  and  irrepressible 
in  its  hope  !  And  yet,  in  the  very  midst  of  the  great  works 
that  mark  its  progress,  while  we  behold  on  every  hand  the 
barriers  of  darkness  and  ignorance  overthrown,  and  per 
ceive  the  circle  of  knowledge  continually  widening,  we 
must  forever  remember  that  man,  in  all  his  pride  of  scien 
tific  research,  and  all  his  power,  of  elemental  conquest,  can 
but  follow,  at  an  infinite  distance,  the  methods  of  the  Great 
Designer  of  the  Universe.  His  research  is  but  the  attempt 
to  learn  what  nature  has  done  or  may  do  ;  his  plans  are 
but  an  imperfect  copy  of  a  half-seen  original.  He  strives, 
and  sometimes  with  success,  to  penetrate  into  the  workshop 
of  nature ;  but,  whether  he  use  the  sunbeam,  or  steam,  or 
electricity — whether  he  discover  a  continent  or  a  star — 
whether  he  decompose  light  or  water — whether  he  fathom 
the  depths  of  the  ocean  or  the  depths  of  the  human  heart- 
in  each  and  all  he  is  but  an  imitator  of  the  Great  Architect 
and  Creator  of  all  things.  We  have  accomplished  a  great 
work  ;  we  have  diminished  space  to  a  point ;  we  have  tra 
versed  one-twelfth  of  the  circumference  of  our  globe  with 
a  chain  of  thought  pulsating  with  intelligence  and  almost 
spiritualizing  matter.  But,  even  while  we  assemble  to 
mark  the  deed  and  rejoice  at  its  completion,  the  Almighty, 
as  if  to  impress  us  with  a  becoming  sense  of  our  weakness, 


24  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

when  compared  with  his  power,  has  set  a  new  signal  of  his 
reign  in  heaven.  If,  to-night,  fellow- citizens,  you  will  look 
out  from  the  glare  of  your  illuminated  city  into  the  north 
western  heavens,  you  will  perceive,  low  down  on  the  edge 
of  the  horizon,  a  bright  stranger,  pursuing  its  path  across 
the  sky.  Amid  the  starry  hosts  that  keep  their  watch,  it 
shines,  attended  by  a  brighter  pomp  and  followed  by  a 
broader  train.  No  living  man  has  gazed  upon  its  splendors 
before,  no  watchful  votary  of  science  has  traced  its  course 
for  nearly  ten  generations.  It  is  more  than  three  hundred 
years  since  its  approach  was  visible  from  our  planet.  When 
last  it  came  it  startled  an  emperor  on  his  throne,  and  while 
the  superstition  of  his  age  taught  him  to  perceive  in  its 
presence  a  herald  and  a  doom,  his  pride  saw  in  its  flaming 
course  and  fiery  train,  the  announcement  that  his  own  light 
was  about  to  be  extinguished.  In  common  with  the  lowest 
of  his  subjects,  he  read  omens  of  destruction  in  the  baleful 
heavens,  and  prepared  himself  for  a  fate  which  alike  awaits 
the  mightiest  and  the  meanest.  Thanks  to  the  present  con 
dition  of  scientific  knowledge,  we  read  the  heavens  with  a 
far  clearer  perception.  We  see,  in  the  predicted  return  of 
the  rushing,  blazing  comet  through  the  sky,  the  ma*ch  of  a 
heavenly  messenger  along  its  appointed  way  and  around 
his  predestined  orbit.  For  three  hundred  years  he  has 
traveled  amid  the  regions  of  infinite  space.  "Lone  wan 
dering,  but  not  lost,"  he  has  left  behind  him  shining  suns, 
blazing  stars,  and  gleaming  constellations,  now  nearer  to  the 
Eternal  Throne,  and  again  on  the  confines  of  the  universe. 
He  returns,  with  visage  radiant  and  benign  ;  he  returns, 
with  unimpeded  march  and  unobstructed  way  ;  he  returns, 
the  majestic,  swift  electric  telegraph  of  the  Almighty, 
bearing  upon  his  flaming  front  the  tidings  that,  throughout 
the  universe,  there  is  still  peace  and  order — that,  amid  the 
immeasurable  dominions  of  the  Great  King,  his  rule  is  still 
perfect— that  suns  and  stars  and  systems  tread  their  endless 
circle  and  obey  the  Eternal  law. 

When  Pericles,  the  greatest  of  Athenian  statesmen,  stood 
in  the  suburb  of  the  Kerameikus,  to  deliver  the  funeral 
oration  of  the  soldiers  who  had  fallen  in  the  expedition  to 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  25 

Samos,  he  seized  the  occasion  to  describe,  with  great  but 
pardonable  pride,  the  grandeur  of  Athens.  It  was  the  first 
year  of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  and  he  spoke  amid  the  tro 
phies  of  the  Persian  conquest  and  the  creations  of  the  Greek 
genius.  In  that  immortal  oration  he  depicted,  in  glowing 
colors,  the  true  sources  of  national  greatness,  and  enumer 
ated  the  titles  by  which  Athens  claimed  to  be  the  first  city 
of  the  world.  He  spoke  of  constitutional  guarantees,  of 
democratic  principles,  of  the  supremacy  of  law,  of  the  free 
dom  of  the  social  march.  He  spoke  of  the  elegance  of  pri 
vate  life — of  the  bounteousness  of  comforts  and  luxuries— 
of  a  system  of  education — of  their  encouragement  to  stran 
gers — of  their  cultivated  taste — of  their  love  of  the  beauti 
ful — of  their  rapid  interchange  of  ideas  ;  but,  above  all,  he 
dwelt  upon  the  courage  of  her  citizens,  animated  by  reflec 
tions  that  her  greatness  was  achieved  uby  men  of  daring, 
full  of  a  sense  of  honorable  shame  in  all  their  actions." 

Fellow-citizens  :  In  most  of  these  respects  we  may  adopt 
the  description  ;  but  if  in  taste,  in  manners,  if  in  temples 
and  statues,  if  in  love  and  appreciation  of  art,  we  fall  be 
low  the  genius  of  Athens,  in  how  many  respects  is  it  our 
fortune  to  be  superior  ?  We  have  a  revealed  religion,  we 
have  a  perfect  system  of  morality ;  we  have  a  literature 
based,  it  is  true,  on  their  models,  but  extending  into  realms 
of  which  they  never  dreamed.  We  have  a  vast  and  fertile 
territory  within  our  own  dominion,  and  science  brings  the 
whole  world  within  our  reach.  We  have  founded  an  em 
pire  in  a  wilderness,  and  poured  fabulous  treasures  into  the 
lap  of  commerce. 

But  amid  all  these  wonders,  it  is  obvious  that  we  stand 
upon  the  threshold  of  new  discoveries,  and  at  the  entrance 
to  a  more  imperial  dominion.  The  history  of  the  last  three 
hundred  years  has  been  a  history  of  successive  advances, 
each  more  wonderful  than  the  last.  There  is  no  reason  to 
believe  that  the  procession  will  "be  stayed,  or  the  music  of 
its  march  be  hushed  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  world  is  radiant 
with  hope,  and  all  the  signs  in  earth  and  heaven  are  full  of 
promise  to  the  race.  Happy  are  we  to  whom  it  is  given  to 
share  and  spread  these  blessings  ;  happier  yet  if  we  shall 


26  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

transmit  the  great  trust  committed  to  our  care  undimmed 
and  unbroken  to  succeeding  generations. 

I  have  spoken  of  three  hundred  years  past— dare  I  im 
agine  three  hundred  years  to  come  ?  It  is  a  period  very 
far  beyond  the  life  of  the  individual  man  ;  it  is  but  a  span 
in  the  history  of  a  nation,  throughout  the  changing  genera 
tions  of  mental  life.  The  men  grow  old  and  die,  the  com 
munity  remains,  the  nation  survives.  As  we  transmit  our 
institutions,  so  we  shall  transmit  our  blood  and  our  names 
to  future  ages  and  populations.  What  multitudes  shall 
throng  these  shores,  what  cities  shall  gem  the  borders  of 
the  sea  !  Here  all  people  and  all  tongues  shall  meet.  Here 
shall  be  a  more  perfect  civilization,  a  more  thorough  intel 
lectual  development,  a  firmer  faith,  a  more  reverent  wor 
ship. 

Perhaps,  as  we  look  back  to  the  struggles  of  an  earlier 
age,  and  mark  the  steps  of  our  ancestors  in  the  career  we 
have  traced,  so  some  thoughtful  man  of  letters  in  ages  yet 
to  come,  may  bring  to  light  the  history  of  this  shore  or  of 
this  day.  I  am  sure,  fellow -citizens,  that  whoever  shall 
hereafter  read  it,  will  perceive  that  our  pride  and  joy  is 
dimmed  by  no  stain  of  selfishness.  Our  pride  is  for  hu 
manity  ;  our  joy  is  for  the  world  ;  and  amid  all  the  won 
ders  of  past  achievement  and  all  the  splendors  of  present 
success,  we  turn  with  swelling  hearts  to  gaze  into  the 
boundless  future,  with  the  earnest  conviction  that  it  will 
yet  develop  a  universal  brotherhood  of  man. 


JUNIPERO    SERRA,    THE    FOUNDER    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

^UNIPERO  SERRA,  the  founder  of  the  Missions, 
which  were  the  first  settlements  of  civilized  man 
in  California,  was  born  on  the  Island  of  Majorca, 
part  of  the  kingdom  of  Spain,  on  the  24th  of 
November,  1713.  At  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  be 
came  a  Monk  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis,  and  the 
new  name  of  Junipero  was  then  substituted  for  his  baptis 
mal  name  of  Miguel  Jose.  After  entering  the  convent,  he 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  27 

went  through  a  collegiate  course  of  study,  and  before  he  had 
received  the  degree  of  Doctor,  was  appointed  lecturer  upon 
philosophy.  He  became  a  noted  preacher,  and  was  fre 
quently  invited  to  visit  the  larger  towns  of  his  native  island 
in  that  capacity. 

Junipero  Avas  thirty-six  years  of  age  when  he  determined 
to  become  a  missionary  in  the  New  World.  In  1749  he 
crossed  the  ocean  in  company  with  a  number  of  brother 
Franciscan  Monks,  among  them  several  who  afterward 
came  with  him  to  California.  He  remained  but  a  short  time 
in  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  was  soon  sent  a  missionary  to 
the  Indians  in  the  Sierra  Madre,  in  the  district  now  known 
as  the  State  of  San  Luis  Potosi.  He  spent  nine  years  there, 
and  then  returned  to  the  City  of  Mexico  where  he  stayed 
for  seven  years,  in  the  Convent  of  San  Fernando. 

In  1767,  when  he  was  fifty -four  years  of  age,  he  was  ap 
pointed  to  the  charge  of  the  Missions  to  be  established  in 
Upper  California.  He  arrived  at  San  Diego  in  1769,  and, 
with  the  exception  of  one  journey  to  Mexico,  he  spent  all 
the  remainder  of  his  life  here.  He  died  at  the  Mission  of 
Carmel,  near  Monterey,  on  the  28th  of  August,  1784,  aged 
seventy-one  years. 

Our  knowledge  of  his  character  is  derived  almost  exclu 
sively  from  his  biography  by  Palou,  who  was  also  a  native 
of  Majorca,  a  brother  Franciscan  Monk,  had  been  his  disci 
ple,  came  across  the  Atlantic  with  him,  was  his  associate  in 
the  college  of  San  Fernando,  his  companion  in  the  expedi 
tion  to  California,  his  successor  in  the  Presidency  of  the 
Missions  of  Old  California,  his  subordinate  afterward  in 
New  California,  his  attendant  at  his  death-bed,  and  his  near 
est  friend  for  forty  years  or  more.  Under  the  circumstances, 
Palou  had  a  right  to  record  the  life  of  his  preceptor  and 
superior. 

Junipero  Serra.  as  we  ascertain  his  character  directly  and 
inferentially  in  his  biography,  was  a  man  to  whom  his  relig 
ion  was  every  thing.  All  his  actions  were  governed  by  the 
ever-present  and  predominant  idea  that  life  is  a  brief  proba 
tion,  trembling  between  eternal  perdition  on  the  one  side, 
and  salvation  on  the  other.  Earth,  for  its  own  sake,  had 


28  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

no  joys  for  him.  His  soul  did  not  recognize  this  life  as  its 
home.  He  turned  with  dislike  from  nearly  all  those  sources 
of  pleasure  in  which  the  polished  society  of  our  age  delights. 
As  a  Monk  he  had,  in  boyhood,  renounced  the  joys  of  love, 
and  the  attractions  of  woman's  society.  The  conversation 
of  his  own  sex  was  not  a  source  of  amusement.  He  was 
habitually  serious.  Laughter  was  inconsistent  with  the 
terrible  responsibilities  of  this  probationary  existence.  Not 
a  joke  or  a  jovial  action  is  recorded  of  him.  He  delighted 
in  no  joyous  books.  Art  or  poetry  never  served  to  sharpen 
his  wits,  lighten  his  spirit,  or  solace  his  weary  moments. 
The  sweet  devotional  poems  of  Fray  Luis  de  Leon,  and  the 
delicate  humor  of  Cervantes,  notwithstanding  the  perfect 
piety  of  both,  were  equally  strange  to  him.  He  knew  noth 
ing -of  the  science  and  philosophy  which  threw  all  enlight 
ened  nations  into  fermentation  a  hundred  years  ago.  The 
rights  of  man  and  the  birth  of  chemistry  did  not  withdraw 
his  fixed  gaze  from  the  other  world,  which  formed  the  con 
stant  subject  of  his  contemplation. 

It  was  not  sufficient  for  him  to  abstain  from  positive 
pleasure  ;  he  considered  it  his  duty  to  inflict  upon  himself 
bitter  pain.  He  ate  little,  avoided  meat  and  wine,  preferred 
fruit  and  fish,  never  complained  of  the  quality  of  his  food, 
nor  sought  to  have  it  more  savory.  He  often  lashed  him 
self  with  ropes,  sometimes  of  wire  ;  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
beating  himself  in  the  breast  with  stones,  and  at  times  he  put 
a  burning  torch  to  his  breast.  These  things  he  did  while 
preaching  or  at  the  close  of  his  sermons,  his  purpose  being, 
as  his  biographer  says,  "not  only  to  punish  himself  but 
also  to  move  his  auditory  to  penitence  for  their  own  sins." 

We  translate  the  following  incident,  which  occurred  dur 
ing  a  sermon  which  he  delivered  in  Mexico,  the  precise  date 
and  place  are  not  given  : — 

"  Imitating  his  devout  San  Francisco  Solano,  he  drew  out 
a  chain,  and  letting  his  habit  fall  below  his  shoulders,  after 
having  exhorted  his  auditory  to  penance,  he  began  to  beat 
himself  so  cruelly  that  all  the  spectators  were  moved  to 
tears,  and  one  man  rising  up  from  among  them,  went  with 
all  haste  to  the  pulpit  and  took  the  chain  from  the  penitent 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  29 

father,  came  down  with  it  to  the  platform  of  the  presbiterio, 
and  following  the  example  of  the  venerable  preacher,  he 
bared  himself  to  the  waist  and  began  to  do  public  penance, 
saying,  with  tears  and  sobs,  '  I  am  the  sinner,  ungrateful 
to  God,  who  ought  to  do  penance  for  my  many  sins,  and 
not  the  father  who  is  a  saint.'  So  cruel  and  pitiless  were 
the  blows,  that,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people,  he  fell  down, 
they  supposing  him  to  be  dead.  The  last  unction  and  sacra 
ment  were  administered  to  him  there,  and  soon  after  that  he 
died.  We  may  believe  with  pious  faith,  that  his  soul  is 
enjoying  the  presence  of  God." 

Serra,  and  his  biographer,  did  not  receive  the  Protestant 
doctrine,  that  there  have  been  no  miracles  since  the  Apos 
tolic  age.  They  imagined  that  the  power  possessed  by  the 
chief  disciples  of  Jesus  had  been  inherited  by  the  Catholic 
priests  of  their  time,  and  they  saw  wonders  where  their 
contemporary  clergymen,  like  Conyers,  Middleton,  and 
Priestly,  saw  nothing  save  natural  mistakes.  Palou  records 
the  following  story,  with  unquestioning  faith  :— 

'•  When  he  [Serra]  was  traveling  with  a  party  of  mission 
aries  through  the  province  of  Huasteca  [in  Mexico],  many 
of  the  villagers  did  not  go  to  hear  the  word  of  God  at  the 
first  village  where  they  stopped  ;  but  scarcely  had  the 
fathers  left  the  place  when  it  was  visited  by  an  epidemic, 
which  carried  away  sixty  villagers,  all  of  whom,  as  the 
curate  of  the  place  wrote  to  the  reverend  father  Junipero, 
were  persons  who  had  not  gone  to  hear  the  missionaries. 
The  rumor  of  the  epidemic  having  gone  abroad,  the  people 
in  other  villages  were  dissatisfied  with  their  curates  for 
admitting  the  missionaries  ;  but  when  they  heard  that  only 
those  died  who  did  not  listen  to  the  sermons,  they  became 
very  punctual,  not  only  the  villagers,  but  the  country  peo 
ple  dwelling  upon  ranches  many  leagues  distant. 

''Their  apostolic  labors  having  been  finished,  they  were 
upon  their  way  back,  and  at  the  end  of  a  few  days'  journey, 
when  the  sun  was  about  to  set,-  they  knew  not  where  to 
spend  the  night,  and  considered  it  certain  that  they  must 
sleep  upon  the  open  plain.  They  were  thinking  about  this 
when  they  saw  near  the  road  a  house,  whither  they  went 


30  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

and  solicited  lodging.  They  found  a  venerable  man,  with 
his  wife  and  child,  who  received  them  with  much  kindness 
and  attention,  and  gave  them  supper.  In  the  morning  the 
Fathers  thanked  their  hosts,  and  taking  leave,  pursued  their 
way.  After  having  gone  a  little  distance  they  met  some 
muleteers,  who  asked  them  where  they  had  passed  the 
night.  When  the  place  was  described,  the  muleteers  de 
clared  that  there  was  no  house  or  ranche  near  the  road,  or 
within  many  leagues.  The  missionaries  attributed  to  Di 
vine  Providence  the  favor  of  that  hospitality,  and  believed 
without  doubt  that  these  hosts  were  Jesus,  Mary,  and 
Joseph,  reflecting  not  only  about  the  order  and  cleanness 
of  the  house  (though  poor),  and  the  affectionate  kindness 
with  which  they  had  been  received,  but  also  about  the 
extraordinary  internal  consolation  which  their  hearts  had 
felt  there." 

Serra's  religious  conviction  found  in  him  a  congenial 
mental  constitution.  He  was  even-tempered,  temperate, 
obedient,  zealous,  kindly  in  speech,  humble  and  quiet. 
His  cowl  covered  neither  greed,  guile,  hypocrisy,  nor  pride. 
He  had  no  quarrels  and  made  no  enemies.  He  sought  to  be 
a  monk,  and  he  was  one  in  sincerity.  Probably  few  have 
approached  nearer  to  the  ideal  perfection  of  a  monkish  life 
than  he.  Even  those  who  think  that  he  made  great  mistakes 
of  judgment  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  existence  and  the 
duties  of  man  to  society,  must  admire  his  earnest,  honest, 
and  good  character. — Alia  California,  Oct.  31,  1862. 


A    SONG    BY   EDWARD  POLLOCK. 

EDITORS  EVENING  MIRROR  : — In  looking  through  some 
old  MSS.,  in  my  office,  to-day,  I  accidentally  stumbled  on 
the  following  sweet  little  poem,  by  the  late  EDWARD  POL 
LOCK.  It  was  handed  to  me  in  the  street,  in  1856,  and  care 
lessly  laid  aside  for  future  examination.  In  the  hurry  of 
events  during  the  summer  of  that  year,  it  was  overlooked 
and  forgotten.  It  now  reappears,  consecrated  by  the  seal 
of  death,  and  embalmed  in  its  own  beauty. 

W.  H.  RHODES. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  31 


A   SONG. 

YE  stars  that  look  on  me  to-night, 

How  beautiful  ye  seem  ! 
For  I  have  found  my  spirit's  light, 

The  angel  of  my  dream. 
Oh,  never  half  so  clear  before 

Have  I  beheld  you  shine  ; 
For  heaven  itself  looks  lovelier 

To  lover's  eyes  like  mine ! 

Alas  !  I  fear  when  silence  waits 

To  catch  my  voice  in  vain, 
The  listener  at  your  golden  gates 

Will  hear  some  other  twain, 
Whose  hearts,  like  ours,  in  melody 

Will  sadly  heave  and  sigh, 
To  see  how  calmly  you  behold 

Humanity  pass  by  ! 
&  F.  Mirror,  September  29,  1860. 


WHY    IT   RAINS. 

HY  does  it  rain  ?  So  simple  a  question  ought 
to  be  readily  answered.  We  shall  be  sent  to 
our  school-books,  may  be,  for  presuming  to  ask 
it.  But  we  shall  not  find,  at  least  in  the  books 
of  our  school-days,  an  answer  to  the  interroga 
tive,  childish  as  it  may  be.  We  are  in  a  widely 
different  country  and  climate  from  that  in  which  the  major 
ity  of  our  adult  population  studied  the  laws  of  the  moist  and 
dry  weather,  and  there  is  a  totally  different  application  of 
their  principles  here  from  that  of  our  old  homes.  Besides,  we 
would  not  wonder  if  philosophy,  always  vague  and  uncer 
tain  at  best  on  this  subject,  had  changed  somewhat  since  the 
present  generation  were  boys  and  girls,  and  new  theories 
had  supplanted  old.  It  is  of  some  moment  to  know  pre 
cisely  why  it  rains.  If  the  coming  of  the  rain  be  of  any  con- 


32  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

cern  to  the  farmer  and  the  miner,  a  simple  knowledge  of  its 
causes — whence  it  comes,  and  in  obedience  to  what  known 
laws — may  serve  as  the  basis  of  information  of  immediate 
and  practical  value.  It  may  lead  to  a  better  acquaintance 
with  the  laws  of  our  climate,  and  possibly  to  improvement 
in  the  science  of  agriculture  ;  and  since  it  has  grown  to  be 
an  admitted  fact  among  intelligent  minds  that  very  many  of 
the  failures  in  the  latter  science  in  this  country  are  attribu 
table  to  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  proper  seasons  for 
setting  out  in  the  labors  of  the  husbandman,  an  answer  to 
our  simple  question  may  lead  to  the  cure  of  many  radical 
defects. 

We  know  the  rains  have  their  allotted  periods,  that  the 
comparative  fall  is  so  much  per  season,  that  the  approach 
of  rain  is  marked  by  sensible  changes  in  the  atmosphere, 
and  it  is  very  easy  to  note  the  direction  from  which  the 
rain  cometh,  perhaps  discern  the  face  of  the  sky  for  the 
morrow.  But  here  our  weather  wisdom  stoppeth  short. 
A  week  or  two  ago  the  temperature  fell  several  degrees ;  we 
had  a  cold  spell,  the  sure  premonition  of  rains,  at  this  sea 
son  of  the  year,  notwithstanding  the  subsequent  warmth. 
On  Thursday  last  the  first  floods  descended.  The  fetters  of 
our  winter,  that  is  to  say,  the  long  dry  season  of  parched 
and  suspended  vegetable  life,  corresponding  to  the  period 
of  its  extinction  under  frosts  and  snows  in  our  old  homes, 
were  broken,  and  spring  commenced.  In  a  few  weeks  we 
shall  have  grass  green  in  our  valleys  and  about  our  door 
yards.  Before  Christmas  there  will  be  peeping  buds  and 
blossoms  in  the  favorite  haunts  of  Flora  in  our  lowlands. 

The  prevailing  winds  which  blow  along  our  coast  are 
from  the  westward.  The  discovery  was  valuable  when  first 
applied  to  man' s  use,  over  two  hundred  years  ago.  Then  the 
commerce  of  this  coast  was  limited  to  "  one  single  galeon,  per 
forming,  annually,  one  voyage  from  Manilla  and  Acapulco, 
and  back  again."  It  was  found  that  by  steering  north,  the 
mariner  would  fall  in  with  westerly  winds,  by  which  he 
would  be  wafted  in  sight  of  the  California  coast.  In  this 
way  the  voyage  was  sometimes  made  in  fifty  days,  which  is 
not  far  from  the  average  duration  of  voyages  in  these  days 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  33 

But  the  westerly  breezes  are  not  the  only  periodical  winds 
which  visit  our  shores.  The  summer  climate  of  San  Fran 
cisco,  as  well  as  all  along  our  sea-coast,  is  marked  by  cool 
winds  from  a  northerly  direction.  Their  invigorating  fresh 
ness  is  derived  from  their  passage  across  a  vast  body  of  cool 
water  making  down  toward  our  shores  from  the  Arctic  Sea  ; 
very  much  in  the  manner  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  though  with  a 
different  temperature,  along  the  coasts  of  England.  Our 
westerly  breezes  are  always  charged  with  moisture,  and 
distil  the  dews  by  which  vegetation  is  nourished  in  our  cool, 
summer  nights.  The  lower  temperature  of  the  sea-coast 
precipitates  this  moisture  more  freely,  causing  it  to  roll 
inland  in  heavy  banks  of  fogs,  and  sometimes  to  appear,  in 
summer  time,  in  showers  of  rain.  Now,  if  we  study  the 
operation  upon  these  prevailing  winds,  of  the  changes  made 
in  our  seasons  by  the  passage  of  the  sun  to  the  south,  we 
may  obtain  a  clue  to  the  source  of  our  winter  supplies  of 
rain.  And  in  pursuit  of  our  inquiry  we  shall  probably  find 
no  author  better  capable  of  instructing  us  than  Lieut.  Maury, 
from  whose  last  work  we  have  within  the  last  month  or  two 
drawn  copiously  for  other  facts  in  physical  geography. 
But  first,  let  us  state  the  theory  of  the  tc  trades  "  and  north 
west  and  southwest  winds,  as  advanced  by  Maury,  con 
densing  our  description  from  his  own  language. 

"  From  the  parallel  of  about  30  degrees  north  and  south," 
says  this  writer,  u  nearly  to  the  equator,  we  have,  extending 
entirely  around  the  earth,  two  zones  of  perpetual  winds,  viz.  : 
the  zone  of  northeast  trades  on  this  side,  and  of  southeast 
on  that.  With  slight  interruptions,  they  blow  perpetually, 
and  are  steady  and  constant,  except  when  they  are  turned 
aside  by  a  desert  here  and  there,  to  blow  as  monsoons,  or 
as  land  and  seabreezes.  As  these  two  main  currents  of  air 
are  constantly  flowing  from  the  poles  toward  the  equator,  it 
is  assumed  that  the  air  kept  in  motion  must  return  by  some 
channel  to  the  place  toward  the  poles  whence  it  comes,  in 
order  to  supply  the  trades.  The  return  currents  are  as 
signed  to  the  upper  regions  of  the  atmosphere  until  they 
pass  over  those  parallels  between  which  the  trade  winds  are 
always  blowing  on  the  surface.  The  rotation  of  the  earth  on 

3 


34  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

its  axis  causes  these  direct  and  counter-currents  to  lag 
behind,  as  they  now  to  or  from  the  equator,  and  hence 
appear  to  move  transversely  across  the  globe,  turning  to  the 
west  as  they  go  from  the  poles  to  the  equator,  and  in  the 
opposite  direction  as  they  move  from  the  equator  to  the 
poles.  The  air  from  the  direction  of  the  poles  presses 
toward  the  equator,  traveling  high  above  the  surface  of  the 
earth,  gradually  drawing  nearer  (perhaps  owing  to  the  con 
vexity  of  the  earth),  until  about  the  parallel  of  30  degrees, 
when  the  two  currents,  northern  and  southern,  meet,  and, 
pressing  heavily  against  each  other,  produce  the  calms  north 
and  south  of  the  equator,  designated  as  the  calms  of  Cancer 
and  Capricorn.  The  pressure  gives  a  downward  tendency 
to  the  atmosphere,  and  from  under  each  of  these  banks  of 
calms  slips  away,  in  the  direction  both  of  the  equator  and 
the  poles,  separate  currents,  denominated  respectively  N.  E. 
and  S.  E.  trades  (toward  the  equator),  and  S.  W.  and  N.  W. 
passage  winds,  blowing  toward  the  poles.  At  the  equator 
a  second  meeting  takes  place  between  the  currents  which 
have  started  together  from  the  poles ;  this  time  on  the  sur 
face  of  the  earth.  Here,  therefore,  is  another  opposition  of 
winds,  and  another  calm  belt.  Warmed  by  the  heat  of  the 
sun,  however,  and  pressed  on  both  sides  by  the  whole  force 
of  the  N.  E.  and  S.  E.  trades,  the  column  of  air  rises,  and  the 
same  exchange  takes  place  in  the  upper  regions  which  we 
have  seen  occur  at  the  surface  in  the  two  calm  belts,  the  two 
currents  continuing  their  course  respectively  north  and 
south  as  before.  At  the  poles,  approaching  more  and  more 
obliquely,  from  the  spiral  motion  communicated  by  the 
earth,  the  particles  of  air  rush  together  and  are  wheeled 
about  each  axis  in  a  continued  circular  gale,  by  which  each 
again  ascends  to  upper  regions  and  leaves  beneath  still 
another  calm  place  at  either  pole."  Such,  briefly,  is  the 
theory  of  the  motion  of  the  earth's  atmosphere,  as  given  by 
our  author.  Now,  as  to  the  formation  of  clouds  and  the 
distributing  process  which  is  going  on  under  the  action  of 
the  winds : — 

"  When  the  northeast  and  southeast  trades  meet  and  pro 
duce  the  equatorial  calms,  the  air,  by  the  time  it  reaches  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  35 

calm  belt,  is  heavily  laden  with  moisture,  for  in  each  hemi 
sphere  it  has  traveled  obliquely  over  a  large  space  of  ocean. 
It  has  no  room  for  escape  but  in  the  upward  direction.  It 
expands  as  it  ascends  and  becomes  cooler  ;  a  portion  of  its 
vapor  is  thus  condensed,  and  comes  down  in  the  shape  of 
rain.  Therefore  it  is  that  under  these  calms  we  have  a 
region  of  constant  precipitation."  But  all  the  moisture 
which  is  taken  up  by  the  trades  is  not  precipitated  here. 
Borne  off  by  the  currents  of  the  upper  air,  it  is  distributed 
in  their  course  along  the  mountain  tops  of  those  great  ranges 
which  supply  the  mighty  rivers  of  America,  Europe  and 
Asia.  The  rivers  of  our  northern  hemisphere,  the  Missis 
sippi  for  example,  derive  their  supplies  from  the  intertrop- 
ical  regions  of  the  South  Sea,  carried  northward  on  the 
wings  of  the  winds  from  the  south  pole.  Their  operation  in 
concert  with  the  rays  of  the  sun  is  thus  described  :— 

"  Late  in  the  autumn  of  the  north,  throughout  its  winter, 
and  in  early  spring,  the  sun  is  pouring  his  rays  with  the 
greatest  intensity  down  upon  the  seas  of  the  southern 
hemisphere,  and  this  powerful  engine  (the  atmosphere),  is 
pumping  up  the  waters  there  for  our  northern  rivers  with 
the  greatest  activity.  At  this  time  the  mean  temperature 
of  the  entire  southern  hemisphere  is  said  to  be  about  ten 
degrees  higher  than  the  northern.  The  heat  which  this 
heavy  evaporation  absorbs  becomes  latent,  and,  with  the 
moisture,  is  carried  through  the  upper  regions  of  the  atmos 
phere  until  it  reaches  our  climates.  Here  the  vapor  is 
formed  into  clouds,  condensed,  and  precipitated.  The  heat 
which  held  this  water  in  the  state  of  vapor  is  set  free,  it 
becomes  sensible  heat,  and  it  is  that  which  contributes  so 
much  to  temper  our  winter  climate.  It  clouds  up  in  winter, 
it  turns  warm,  and  we  say  we  are  going  to  have  falling 
weather.  That  is  because  the  process  of  condensation  has 
already  commenced,  though  no  rain  or  snow  may  have 
fallen." 

Only  about  two-thirds  of  the  northeast  trade  winds  can 
flow  over  the  ocean,  on  account  of  the  greater  body  of  land 
presented  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  while  the  evapora 
ting  surface  exposed  to  the  southeast  trades  is  calculated  to 


36  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

be  about  fifty  millions  of  miles  greater  than  in  the  north. 
Thus,  two-thirds,  only,  of  the  northeast  trade  winds  are 
fully  charged  with  moisture,  and  only  two- thirds  of  the 
amount  of  rain  that  falls  in  the  northern  hemisphere  should 
fall  in  the  southern.  "And  this,"  says  Maury,  "is  just 
about  the  proportion  that  observation  gives."  Now  let  us 
see  the  application  of  these  principles  in  bringing  us  on 
winter  rains. 

The  calm  and  trade  wind  regions,  or  belts,  we  are  told, 
move  up  and  down  the  earth  annually,  in  latitude  nearly  a 
thousand  miles,  following  the  sun.  The  whole  system  of 
zones,  viz.  :  of  trades,  calms,  and  westerly  winds,  goes  with 
it.  In  the  winter,  the  calm  belt  of  Cancer  approaches  the 
equator,  drawing  with  it  the  southwest  winds.  That  is  to 
say,  the  point  at  which  these  winds  commence  to  blow  is 
shifted  by  so  many  degrees  farther  south.  During  the 
summer,  their  influence  lias  been  felt  on  the  northern  coast, 
in  Washington  Territory  and  New  Caledonia.  They  are  the 
southeast  trades,  which,  ascending  at  the  equator  by  the 
process  we  have  described,  are  met  by  currents  from  the 
north  in  the  calm  belt  of  Cancer,  and  forced  under,  becom 
ing  surface  currents  in  their  oblique  progress  toward  this 
coast.  They  are  the  rain-carriers,  charged  with  the  warm 
liquid  treasures  of  the  South  Sea.  During  the  summer 
they  have  been  busy  in  the  vast  and  hilly  region  north  of 
Puget  Sound,  though  not  with  the  same  effect  as  when  after 
ward  brought  into  contact  with  our  winter  climate.  In 
Oregon,  however,  it  rains  every  month  in  the  year,  and  five 
times  more  in  the  winter  than  in  the  summer  months.  The 
presence  of  these  southwest  rain  winds,  if  not  in  actual 
showers,  in  heavy  rolling  fogs  over  the  districts  of  New 
Caledonia,  gives  that  country  its  peculiar  climate,  and  may 
explain  why  Fraser  River  has  so  long  baffled,  with  its  high 
waters,  the  hopes  of  its  late  treasure- seeking  visitors ;  its 
source  being  high  up  among  the  hills  where  the  air  is  cold 
enough  to  precipitate  the  moisture  of  the  sea-breezes  in  the 
form  of  snow  or  rain.  But  the  sun  in  his  journey  south 
ward,  as  we  have  noticed,  takes  with  him,  so  to  speak,  the 
trades,  calms,  and  westerly  winds,  and  brings  the  latter  to 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  37 

bear  upon  the  coast  of  California,  commencing  as  far  down 
as  the  Gulf.  "In  winter  and  spring,"  says  Maury,  "the 
land  in  California  is  cooler  than  the  sea  air,  and  is  quite 
cold  enough  to  extract  moisure  from  it.  But  in  summer 
and  autumn  the  land  is  the  warmer,  and  can  not  condense 
the  vapors  of  water  held  by  the  air ;  so  the  same  cause 
which  made  it  rain  in  Oregon  now  makes  it  rain  in  Califor 
nia.  As  the  sun  returns  to  the  north,  he  brings  the  calm 
belt  of  Cancer  and  the  northeast  trades  along  with  him  ; 
and  now,  at  places  where,  six  months  before,  the  southwest 
winds  were  the  prevailing  winds,  the  northeast  trades  are 
found  to  blow.  This  is  the  case  in  the  latitude  of  California. 
The  prevailing  winds,  then,  instead  of  going  from  a  warmer 
to  a  cooler  climate,  as  before,  are  going  the  opposite  way. 
Consequently,  if,  under  these  circumstances,  they  have  the 
moisture  in  them  to  make  rains  of,  they  can  not  precipitate 
it." 

Continuing  the  observations,  we  are  taught  the  secret  of 
the  tropical  seasons,  and  the  movements  of  the  equatorial 
calm  belt,  as  follows  :— 

"Panama  is  in  the  region  of  equatorial  calms.  This  belt 
of  calms  travels  during  the  year,  back  and  forth,  over  about 
seventeen  degrees  of  latitude,  coming  farther  north  in  the 
summer,  where  it  tarries  for  several  months,  and  then 
returning  so  as  to  reach  its  extreme  southern  latitude  some 
time  in  March,  or  April.  Where  these  calms  are  it  is 
always  raining,  and  the  chart  (vide  Trade  Wind  Chart— 
'  Maury 's  Wind  and  Current,1)  shows  that  they  hang  over 
the  latitude  of  Panama  from  June  to  November  ;  con 
sequently,  from  June  to  November  is  the  rainy  season  at 
Panama.  The  rest  of  the  year  place  is  in  the  region  of  the 
northeast  trades,  which,  before  they  arrive  there,  have  to 
cross  the  mountains  of  the  Isthmus,  on  the  cool  tops  of 
which  they  deposit  their  moisture,  and  leave  Panama  rain 
less  and  pleasant  until  the  sun  returns  north  with  the  belt 
of  equatorial  calms  after  him.  They  then  push  the  belt  of 
northeast  trades  farther  to  the  north,  occupy  a  part  of  the 
winter  zone,  and  refresh  that  part  of  the  earth  with  summer 
rains.  This  belt  of  calms  moves  over  more  than  double  of 


38  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

its  breadth,  and  nearly  the  entire  motion  from  south  to  north 
is  accomplished  generally  in  two  months,  May  and  June. 
Take  the  parallel  of  four  degrees  north  as  an  illustration : 
During  these  two  months  the  entire  belt  of  calms  crosses 
this  parallel,  and  then  leaves  it  in  the  regions  of  the  south 
east  trades.  During  these  twro  months  it  was  pouring  down 
rain  on  that  parallel.  After  the  calm  belt  passes  it,  the 
rains  cease,  and  the  people  in  that  latitude  have  no  more 
wet  weather  till  the  fall,  when  the  belt  of  calms  recrosses 
this  parallel  on  its  way  to  the  south.  By  examining  the 
'Trade  Wind  Chart,'  it  may  be  seen  what  the  latitudes  are 
that  have  two  rainy  seasons,  and  that  Bogota  is  within  the 
bi-rainy  latitudes." 

The  dry  season  in  California  is  the  wet  season  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley.  The  writer  deduces  that  the  springs 
and  rills  of  the  Father  of  Waters  are  fed  from  the  same 
source  that  supplies  our  rivers,  and  refreshes  our  parched 
earth,  viz.  :  the  great  boiler,  or  evaporating  surface  of  the 
South  Pacific.  The  winds  coming  from  the  southwest,  and 
striking  upon  the  coasts  of  California  and  Oregon  in  winter, 
precipitate  here  copiously.  They  then  pass  over  the  moun 
tains,  robbed  in  part  of  their  moisture.  "Of  course,  after 
watering  the  Pacific  shores,  they  have  not  as  much  vapor  to 
make  rains  of,  especially  for  the  Upper  Mississippi  Valley, 
as  they  had  in  the  summer  time,  when  they  dispensed  their 
moisture  in  the  shape  of  rains  most  sparingly  upon  the 
Pacific  coasts." 

But  there  are  climates  on  the  Pacific,  as  well  as  in  other 
parts  of  the  globe,  where  rain  never  falls.  The  coast  of 
Peru  lies  within  this  region.  Many  of  our  readers  will 
have  noticed,  "going  the  rounds  of  the  newspapers,"  the 
solution  of  the  problem,  "Why  it  never  rains  in  Peru," 
borrowed,  without  acknowledgment  of  its  authorship.  It 
is  a  part  of  the  same  theory  we  have  been  rapidly  sketch 
ing,  and,  as  it  seems  fitly  joined  to  the  subject  under  notice, 
we  reproduce  it  in  the  author's  own  words.  It  is  necessary 
to  observe  that  the  coast  of  Peru  is  within  the  region  of 
perpetual  southeast  trade  winds  :  — 

"The  southeast  trade  winds  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  first 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  39 

strike  the  water  on  the  coast  of  Africa.  Traveling  to  the 
northwest,  they  blow  obliquely  across  the  ocean  until  they 
reach  the  coast  of  Brazil.  By  this  time  they  are  heavily 
laden  with  vapor,  which  they  continue  to  bear  along  across 
the  continent,  depositing  it  as  they  go,  and  supplying  with 
it  the  sources  of  the  Rio  de  la  Plata,  and  the  southern  tribu 
taries  of  the  Amazon.  Finally  they  reach  the  snow-capped 
Andes,  and  here  is  wrung  from  them  the  last  particle  of 
moisture  that  that  very  low  temperature  can  extract. 

"Reaching  the  summit  of  that  range,  they  now  tumble 
down,  as  cool  and  dry  winds,  on  the  Pacific  slopes  beyond. 
Meeting  with  no  evaporating  surface,  and  with  no  tempera 
ture  colder  than  that  to  which  they  were  subjected  on  the 
mountain-tops,  they  reach  the  ocean  before  they  again 
become  charged  with  fresh  vapor,  and  before,  therefore, 
they  have  any  which  the  Peruvian  climate  can  extract. 
The  last  they  had  to  spare  was  deposited  as  snow  on  the 
tops  of  the  Cordilleras,  to  feed  mountain  streams  under  the 
heat  of  the  sun,  and  irrigate  the  valleys  on  the  western 
slopes.  Thus  we  see  how  the  top  of  the  Andes  becomes 
the  reservoir  from  which  are  supplied  the  rivers  of  Chili 
and  Peru." 

The  other  rainless,  or  almost  rainless,  regions  are  the 
western  coasts  of  Mexico,  the  deserts  of  Africa,  Asia,  North 
America,  and  Australia.  The  'dry  season  of  California  is 
the  rainy  season  of  Chili. 

We  might  continue  these  observations  with  equal  pleas 
ure  and  profit  to  our  readers  through  the  beautiful  and 
ingenious  applications  which  the"  author  makes  of  his 
theory  in  establishing  the  laws  of  other  climates,  but  we 
are  reminded  that  we  are  not  only  widely  trespassing  upon 
space,  but  we  are  proceeding  as  though  the  facts  we  have 
related  rested  on  mere  assumption.  Such  is  not  the  case, 
and  nothing  could  be  more  unfair  than  a  sketch  of  Maury's 
theory  without  reference  to  the  arguments  with  which  he 
hedges  around  and  sustains  his  reasoning  every  step  of  the 
way.  It  is  this,  indeed,  which  gives  his  suggestions  their 
weight  and  value.  It  is  true,  the  system  of  the  circulation 
of  the  winds  and  the  sources  of  the  rain,  which  we  have  so 


40  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

imperfectly  outlined,  is,  after  all,  hypothetical,  and  it  dis 
places  in  some  cases  other  popular  theories ;  but  it  is  safe 
to  assert  that  none  have  ever  been  so  complete  or  satisfac 
tory.  And  it  is  enough  to  know  that  Maury's  philosophy 
is  becoming  gradually  adopted  among  scientific  men,  and 
by  none,  so  far  as  we  have  heard,  have  his  positions  been 
controverted. 

Such,  briefly  stated  above,  is  the  answer  of  modern 
science  to  our  simple  inquiry,  Why  does  it  rain  ?  Content 
with  an  explanation  at  once  so  simple,  consistent  and  au 
thoritative,  we  have  not  pursued  the  inquiry  into  the 
causes  of  the  winds  on  their  circuits,  or  the  wonderful 
system  of  exchanges  at  their  places  of  meeting — the  upper 
currents  stooping  to  kiss  the  ocean  and  the  land,  and  pass 
ing  on  their  way  as  surface  breezes,  uninterrupted  to  the 
next  belt  of  calms.  The  process  of  two  opposite  winds 
passing  each  other  is  familiarly  illustrated  by  the  currents 
of  air  passing  in  and  out  of  a  chamber,  through  an  open 
window  or  a  chimney -Hue.  But  in  justice  to  our  author, 
we  must  observe  that  the  laws  of  this  exchange  are  confess 
edly  not  fully  comprehended  by  him,  though  it  is  demon 
strated  most  satisfactorily  that  the  passing  of  the  great 
bodies  of  air  on  their  way  from  the  poles,  twice  at  the 
surface  of  the  earth  and  once  (at  the  equator)  in  the  upper 
regions,  does  take  place.  He  suggests  a  difference  in  the 
magnetic  condition  of  the  winds  flowing  from  the  equator 
and  the  poles  as  the  reason  why  the  currents  do  not  com 
mingle,  but  pursue  their  direction  as  surface  winds  on 
meeting  at  the  northern  and  southern  calm  belts.  If  the 
w^hole  expanse  of  the  globe,  from  north  to  south  and  vice 
versa,  were  not  passed  over  by  the  opposite  winds,  there 
would  be  a  marked  difference  in  the  conditions  of  organic 
life  in  the  northern  and  southern  hemispheres,  which  would 
forbid  the  earth's  inhabitants  removing  from  one  to  the 
other.  The  whole  of  Maury's  system  of  philosophy  turns 
on  the  one  grand  idea  of  compensations.  Beautifully  has 
he  followed  out  and  illustrated  the  principles  of  this  uni 
versal  law.  Well  has  he  said,  "  The  mind  is  delighted  and 
imagination  charmed  by  contemplating  the  physical  ar- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  41 

rangements  of  the  earth  from  such  points  of  view  as  this  is 
which  we  have  before  us ;  from  it  the  sea  and  the  air  and 
the  land  appear  each  as  a  part  of  that  grand  machinery 
upon  which  the  well-being  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth, 
sea,  and  air  depends  ;  and  which,  on  the  beautiful  adapta 
tions  that  we  are  pointing  at,  affords  new  and  striking 
evidence  that  they  all  have  their  origin  in  ONE  omniscient 
idea,  just  as  the  different  parts  of  a  watch  may  be  considered 
to  have  been  constructed  and  arranged  according  to  one 
human  design."—^.  C.  KemUe.in  Sacramento  Union,  Oc 
tober,  1858. 


THE    POISON-OAK    AND    ITS    ANTIDOTE. 

the  woods  and  thickets  of  California,  as  well 
as  on  the  dry  hill-sides,  and,  in  fact,  in  every 
variety  of  locality,  may  be  found  a  very  venomous 
shrub— the  "poison-oak"  or  "poison  ivy;"  the 
Medra  of  the  Spanish  people— the  dread  of  all 
those  who  are  acquainted  with  it.  This  plant  is  known 
scientifically  as  follows :  it  belongs  to  the  natural  order 
Anacardiaceal,  and  is  called  Rlius  diver saloba  by  Torrey 
and  Gray ;  Rims  lobata,  by  Hooker ;  and  Rims  toxi- 
codendron,  by  Hooker  and  Arnott.  It  is  very  similar 
to  the  poison  ivy  of  the  Atlantic  States  (R.  toxicodendron 
Linnaeus),  both  in  its  appearance  and  in  its  poisonous  qual 
ities.  But  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  describe  it,  even 
popularly  ;  for  it  is  unhappily  familiar  to  all,  and  I  will 
only  remark  that,  although  generally  a  small  shrub,  the 
trunk  sometimes  attains  the  diameter  of  six  inches,  and  the 
whole  plant  climbs  over  some  large  tree  for  support.  The 
finest  specimens  that  I  have  ever  seen  were  in  an  oak  and 
laurel  grove,  on  the  road  south  .of  San  Jose. 

I  do  not  need  to  describe  the  cutaneous  disease  that  is 
produced  by  contact  with  or  approach  to  the  poison-oak. 
And  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  advert  to  the  fact  that  this  poi 
son  is  the  cause  of  a  vast  deal  of  misery  and  suffering  in  Cali 
fornia,  and  that  there  is  scarcely  ever  a  time  in  any  little  town 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


or  neighborhood  when  there  are  not  one  or  more  persons 
suffering  from  it ;  and  I  venture  the  assertion  that  there  are 
in  this  State  constantly  from  five  hundred  to  a  thousand 

persons  afflicted  with  this 
disease.  Farmers  and  la 
borers  are  especially  liable 
to  this  poisoning,  and  be 
sides  the  suffering  and  an 
noyance  caused  by  it,  the 
loss  of  valuable  time  is  no 
small  item  to  be  taken  into 
account.  Truly  he  who 
makes  known  a  prompt  and 
sure  antidote  to  this  poison 
will  be  a  public  benefactor ; 
and  this  communication  is 
made  to  the  public  with  the 
confident  expectation  that 
the  remedy  here  described  will  prove  to  be  such  benefac 
tion. 

The  remedies  in  use  for  the  effects  of  the  poison-oak  are 
quite  various,  and  some  of  them  will  cure  the  milder  cases. 
Of  all  the  common  remedies,  the  warm  solution  of  the  sugar 
of  lead  has  within  my  experience  been  productive  of  the 
best  results.  The  water  of  am 
monia,  warm  vinegar  and  water, 
the  warm  decoction  of  the  leaves 
of  RJiamnus  oleifalius  ("Yerba 
del  Oso, "  of  the  California!!-  Span 
ish),  or  even  pure  warm  water,  are 
sufficient  sometimes  to  produce 
a  cure.  All  these  remedies  are,  of 
course,  applied  externally  by  way 
of  washes  to  the  parts  affected. 

But  the  only  remedy  that 
I  have  found  invariably  suc 
cessful  as  an  antidote  for  this  poison,  is  an  indigenous 
plant  growing  very  abundantly  in  this  vicinity  (Monterey), 
and  in  other  parts  of  the  State.  It  is  a  tall,  stout  perennial, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  43 

belongs  to  the  composite  family,  and  looks  lika  a  small  sun 
flower.  It  is  from  one  to  three  feet  high,  has  bright  yellow 
flowers  in  heads  one  to  two  inches  in  diameter  (and  as  I 
have  said),  like  small  sunflowers,  flowering  from  June  to 
October.  Before  flowering,  the  unexpanded  heads  or  buds 
secrete  a  quantity  of  resinous  matter,  white  and  sticky,  like 
balsam,  that  is  iinally,  after  the  flower  expands,  distributed 
over  the  petals,  &c.,  of  the  flowers  like  varnish.  The 
whole  plant — flowers,  leaves,  and  all,  is  resinous  and  viscid. 
When  it  grows  in  dry  hills,  it  is  stiff  and  rigid,  with  nar 
row,  thin  leaves  ;  but  in  damp  localities  it  is  more  robust  and 
succulent,  with  wide,  fleshy  leaves.  Its  botanical  name  is 
Grindelia  hirsutula  and  G.  rolmsta ;  but  I  have  not  been 
able  to  find  more  than  one  species,  and  all  the  different 
forms  possess  the  same  remedial  virtues. 

The  mode  of  using  it  is  as  follows  :  One  may  bruise  the 
fresh  herb  and  apply  it  by  rubbing  over  the  parts  affected ; 
or,  boiling  it  in  a  covered  vessel,  make  a  strong  decoction 
of  the  fresh  or  dried  herb,  with  which  to  wash  the  poisoned 
surfaces.  Its  remedial  properties  appear  to  be  contained 
chiefly  in  the  resin  or  balsam-like  juice  of  the  plant,  which 
is  particularly  abundant  on  the  surface.  One  application 
is  sometimes  sufficient  for  a  cure ;  but  if  the  disease  has 
been  of  long  duration,  several  days  will  elapse  before  relief 
is  obtained.  This  plant  is  a  remedy  for  the  poison-oak, 
used  originally  by  the  Indians  of  this  vicinity,  and  by  them 
its  virtues  have  been  communicated  to  the  Spanish-Califor- 
nian  people,  who  are  now  commencing  to  use  it. 

I  became  acquainted  with  it  in  the  following  manner  : 
A  lady  acquaintance  of  mine  was  poisoned  in  early  youth 
by  the  poison-oak,  and  there  resulted  a  cutaneous  affection 
similar  to  "salt-rheum," — fiery,  burning,  insupportable— 
that  would  not  yield  to  the  remedies  or  the  skill  of  good 
physicians.  She  underwent  cauterization  and  blistering ;  she 
took  mercury  and  other  powerful  remedies,  iodine,  sarsa- 
parilla — all  to  no  purpose.  Her  hands  were  covered  with 
deep  ulcers,  and  her  wrists  and  arms  with  an  eruption  that 
tormented  her  day  and  night.  Nothing  relieved  her.  She 
married  in  the  mean  time,  and  had  a  family  of  fine  healthy 


44  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

children ;  but  she  did  not  get  rid  of  her  affliction.  At 
length,  she,  believing  that  the  disease  was  not  salt- rheum, 
nor  any  thing  more  or  less  than  the  effects  of  poison-oak, 
was  induced  to  use  the  remedy  that  I  have  described,  and 
a  very  few  applications  were  sufficient  to  heal  up  the 
ulcers,  and  cure  her  entirely.  She  has  never  been  troubled 
with  any  cutaneous  eruption  since  that  time,  although 
several  years  have  now  elapsed. 

Her  account  of  her  case  induced  me  to  use  the  plant, 
which  I  have  done  frequently  since  with  the  happiest 
effects.  One  gentleman  of  my  acquaintance  who  is  very 
susceptible  to  the  poison-oak,  was  poisoned  on  the  face, 
hands,  &c.,  and  the  disease  did  not  yield  to  sugar  of  lead, 
hartshorn,  warm  lotions,  or  any  other  of  the  commonly 
used  remedies.  But  a  few  applications  of  the  decoction  of 
Grindelia  removed  it  entirely.  It  is  said  that  when  Fre 
mont  was  here  with  his  soldiers,  they  camped  on  the  flat 
below  the  town,  among  the  poison- oak,  and  many  of  his 
men  were  badly  poisoned.  The  trouble  in  many  cases  did 
not  yield  to  the  prescriptions  of  the  physicians,  and  it  was 
relieved  only  by  using  this  remedy.  But  aside  from  rumor 
or  hearsay,  I  am  cognizant  of  six  cases  in  which  the  effects 
of  poison-oak  have  yielded  to  the  Grindelia,  when  other 
remedies  failed.  NOAV  it  can  not  be  said  that  the  effects  of 
the  Grindelia,  as  stated  above,  were  imaginary,  or  those 
cures  accidental ;  for  the  disease  produced  by  the  poison- 
oak  is  specific  and  sui  generis,  a  cutaneous  disease,  palpa 
ble  and  severe,  that  is  produced  by  a  specific  vegetable 
poison,  and  hence  does  not  at  all  (as  may  be  said  of  many 
other  diseases)  depend  upon  the  imagination  or  moral  state 
of  the  patient,  either  for  its  cause  or  cure. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  say,  in  conclusion,  that  the  Grin 
delia  is  used  also  by  the  people  of  the  country  as  a  remedy 
for  other  cutaneous  diseases  that  are  characterized  by  heat 
and  itching — such  as  nettle-rash,  salt-rheum,  &c.,  but  I 
have  no  means  of  knowing  its  effects  in  these  diseases. — 
Colbert  A.  Can  field,  M.  D.,  in  Santa  Cruz  Sentinel. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  45 


A    LOST    WOULD. 


past  quarter  of  a  century,  disinterring  from 
the  dust  of  ages  the  hidden  secrets  of  genera 
tions  so  long  gone  by,  that  the  very  names  of 
many  of  the  nations  which  once  figured  so 
conspicuously  in  the  world' s  annals  have  per 
ished  with  them,  has  developed  many  strange 
facts  with  regard  to  ancient  America.  It  would  be  strange, 
after  all,  if,  instead  of  having  "  no  past,"  "  no  antiquity," 
as  has  been  alleged  by  her  detractors,  the  continent  dis 
covered  by  Columbus  should  prove  to  be  the  older  of  the 
two. 

Throughout  its  entire  length  and  breadth  traces  have  been 
discovered  of  a  race,  or  rather  of  a  world  of  people,  who 
performed  their  part  in  the  great  life  drama  at  so  early  an 
epoch  that  nearly  every  vestige  of  their  existence  must  have 
disappeared  centuries  before  the  discovery  of  Columbus. 
The  hardy  Northmen  who  visited  the  Atlantic  coasts  as 
early  as  the  fourth  or  fifth  centuries,  found  them  occupied 
by  hostile  races  in  such  numbers  as  to  repel  every  attempt 
to  penetrate  the  interior  ;  the  Northmen  who  made  the  first 
authenticated  discoveries  in  the  western  hemisphere,  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  Columbus  has  always  received  that  honor, 
and  who  must  still  have  been  preceded  by  others,  whose  ac 
counts  of  the  strange  land  they  had  visited,  and  the  won 
ders  they  had  seen,  in  the  absence  of  corroboration,  were 
received  as  fables  by  their  countrymen.  Had  there  been  in 
those  days  such  things  as  newspapers,  the  whole  world 
would  have  learned  of  another  continent.  It  would  have 
been  interesting  in  a  historical  point  of  view,  as  it  would 
have  developed  the  existence,  and  perhaps  have  preserved 
the  record,  of  a  number  of  nations,  of  which  the  last  vestiges 
are  now  fading  from  the  earth. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  origin  of  our  aborigines,  it 
is  certain  that  large  portions  of  what  is  now  the  United 
States,  and  of  countries  farther  south,  were  inhabited  by  a 
numerous  people,  wearing  comfortable  clothing,  and  being 


4:6  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

somewhat  advanced  in  the  arts.  Some  of  them,  as  those  of 
Mexico  and  Central  America,  have  left  behind  them  vast 
ruins,  proving  that  their  cities  were  not  unworthy  of  being 
ranked  with  the  proudest  of  the  olden  time. 

Throughout  the  Northern  country  numerous  traces  of 
vanished  people  have  been  from  time  to  time  discovered, 
but  fainter  and  less  absolutely  defined  than  those  of  the 
Aztecs — showing  conclusively  the  greater  antiquity  of  the 
Northerners.  The  mound  builders,  indications  of  whose 
industry  and  engineering  skill  have  been  found  by  the 
archaeologist,  Squires,  scattered  over  the  Middle  and  North 
ern  States,  must  have  been  more  numerous  in  their  day 
than  the  enlightened  people  that  have  supplanted  them,  yet 
they  have  vanished  so  entirely  from  the  scene  of  their 
earthly  labors,  that,  unless  we  adopt  the  theory  of  retro 
gression,  and  accept  the  North  American  Indians  and  the 
Southern  Aztecs  as  the  last  representatives  of  the  ancients 
of  America,  we  have  not  the  slightest  clue  to  them. 

The  most  remarkable  circumstances  in  connection  with 
these  "people"  are,  that  they  left  behind  them  no  utensils  or 
other  implements,  and  that,  in  cases  where  records  have 
been  discovered,  they  were  in  an  alphabet  so  unlike  any 
thing  ever  before  known  (the  tables  of  Copan  and  Palenque, 
for  instance)  as  to  defy  all  research.  Traces  there  are  of 
customs  similar  to  those  of  the  Asiatics — traces  of  an  iden 
tity  of  language,  but  all  too  vague  and  uncertain,  as  yet,  to 
base  a  theory  upon.  It  seems  as  though,  at  some  far  gone 
period  of  the  world's  history,  Almighty  Providence,  as  a 
punishment  for  its  sins,  had  blotted  at  once  from  existence 
an  entire  world,  whose  very  monuments  mock  the  proud, 
vain,  and  glorious  spirit  which  led  to  their  erection.  But 
there  will,  doubtless,  arise  persons  competent  to  the  task, 
who,  from  their  knowledge  of  dialects  and  hieroglyphic 
writing,  may  yet  succeed  in  clearing  up  this  most  wonderful 
and  impressive  of  modern  mysteries. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  47 


the  early  part  of  May,  a  week  after  my  arrival 
in  California,  I  was  invited  by  a  gentleman  in 
San  Francisco  to  take  a  seat  in  his  carriage  for 
a  "  drive  around  the  bay."  This  means  around 
the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  which  extends  southerly 
about  50  miles  from  the  Golden  Gate,  where  the  tides  of  the 
Pacific  force  their  way  inland.  The  bay  is,  therefore,  a 
large  salt  water  lake  about  eight  miles  broad,  and  six  times 
as  long.  It  is  undotted  with  islands,  and  lies  placid  in  the 
embrace  of  some  of  the  richest  lands  of  California,  In  mak 
ing  the  tour  around  it,  we  drive  down  along  the  narrow 
county  of  San  Mateo,  whose  hills  divide  the  dreamy  bay 
from  the  billows  of  the  Pacific,  then  across  the  county  of 
Santa  Clara,  and  up,  on  the  eastern  side,  through  Alameda  // 
County  to  Oakland,  where  the  ferry-boat  returns  us  to  the 
metropolis  of  wind  and  fog,  whose  climate  in  summer  is  / 
exhaustively  stated  in  the  phrase,  "gust  and  dust." 

Early  in  May  is  the  true  time  to  make  this  excursion,  for 
then  the  country  is  at  the  height  of  its  brief  bloom.  Cali 
fornia  has  often  been  compared  with  Palestine  and  Syria  for 
scenery.  The  passages  in  the  Psalms  and  the  New  Testa 
ment  which  describe  the  fleeting  beauty  of  the  flowers  and 
the  grass,  are  certainly  applicable  here.  "  For  the  sun  is  no 
sooner  risen  with  a  burning  heat,  than  it  Avithereth  the 
grass,  and  the  flower  thereof  falleth,  and  the  grace  of  the 
fashion  of  it  perisheth."  Indeed,  there  is  no  grass,  properly 
speaking,  native  to  the  landscape.  The  green  of  early  May 
on  the  uncultivated  plains  and  slopes  is  mostly  that  of  the 
wild  oats.  As  the  summer  sun  rises,  and  the  rains  cease, 
they  ripen  into  a  golden  tinge,  which,  at  a  distance,  is  the 
hue  of  sand,  and  their  seed  drops  into  the  parched  and 
crackling  ground  for  new  crops  when  the  rain  returns.  By 
the  middle  of  June  all  the  wild  fields  that  are  destitute  of 
trees  look  sandy  with  this  harvest  of  indigenous  and  self- 
sowed  grain ;  and  it  is  only  in  May  that  the  plains  and  hill- 


48  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

sides  which  the  plowshare  has  not  broken  are  clad  in  their 
vesture  of  embroidered  green. 

But  the  beauty  is  as  captivating  as  it  is  evanescent.  Some 
travelers  have  written  of  the  marvelous  effect  of  the  air  of 
California  on  the  spirits.  Bayard  Taylor  tells  us  that,  on 
this  very  drive,  he  felt,  in  breathing  the  air,  like  Julius  Cse- 
sar,  Milo  of  Cortana,  and  General  Jackson  rolled  into  one. 
I  can  not  honestly  say  that  the  vivifying  quality  was  any 
greater  than  I  have  experienced  in  the  Pinkham  woods,  or 
the  forests  of  Mt.  Adams,  or  on  the  heights  of  Randolph. 
Oxygen  is  oxygen,  and  will  Genera,!  Jacksoriize  a  man  as 
quickly  in  Coos  County,  New  Hampshire,  as  when  it  blows 
over  the  Coast  Range  of  California,  fresh  from  the  Pacific. 
But  there  was  a  great  exhilaration  in  the  first  acquaintance 
with  the  scenery  of  a  strange  land,  especially  when  made  in 
a  luxurious  carriage,  and  with  the  accompaniment  of  pleas 
ant  companions  and  a  very  spirited  team. 

The  first  thing  that  arrested  attention  after  leaving  the 
•;  sandy  streets  of  San  Francisco  was  the  flowers.  Early  in 
May,  in  New  England,  people  hunt  for  flowers.  A  bunch 
of  violets,  or  a  sprig  or  two  of  brilliant  color,  intermixed 
with  green,  is  a  sufficient  trophy  of  a  tramp  that  chills  you, 
damps  your  feet,  and  possibly  leaves  the  seed  of  consump 
tion.  Here  they  have  flowers  in  May,  not  shy,  but  rampant, 
as  if  nothing  else  had  the  right  to  be  ;  flowers  by  the  acre, 
flowers  by  the  square  mile,  flowers  as  the  visible  carpet  of 
an  immense  mountain  wall.  You  can  gather  them  in 
clumps,  a  dozen  varieties  at  one  pull.  You  can  fill  a  bushel 
basket  in  five  minutes.  You  can  reap  them  into  mounds. 
And  the  colors  are  as  charming  as  the  numbers  are  profuse. 
Yellow,  purple,  violet,  pink,  and  pied,  are  spread  around 
you,  now  in  separate  level  masses,  now  two  or  three  com 
bined  in  a  swelling  knoll,  now  intermixed  in  gorgeous  con 
fusion.  Imagine  yourself  looking  across  a  hundred  acres  of 
wild  meadow,  stretching  to  the  base  of  hills  nearly  two 
thousand  feet  high — the  whole  expanse  swarming  with  little 
straw-colored  wild  sunflowers,  orange  poppies,  squadrons 
of  purple  beauties,  battalions  of  pink— and  then  the  moun 
tain,  unbroken  by  a  tree  or  a  rock,  glowing  with  the  investi- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  49 

ture  of  all  these  hues,  softened  and  kneaded  by  distance. 
This  is  what  I  saw  on  the  road  to  San  Mateo.  The  orange 
and  purple  seemed  to  predominate  in  the  mountain  robe. 
But  on  the  lower  slopes,  and  reaching  midway  its  height, 
was  a  strange  sprinkling  of  blue,  gathered  here  and  there 
into  intenser  stripes,  and  running  now  and  then  into  sharp 
points,  as  if  over  the  general  basis  of  purple,  orange,  and 
yellow,  there  had  fallen  a  violet  snow,  which  lay  tenderly 
around  the  base,  but  in  a  few  places  on  the  side  had  been 
blown  into  drifts  and  points. 

The  wild  poppy  of  California,  in  May,  is  the  most  fasci 
nating  of  all  the  flowers.  It  does  not  have  a  striped  or 
spotty  leaf,  but  is  stained  with  a  color  which  is  a  compro 
mise  between  a  tea-rose  and  an  orange,  and  is  as  delicately 
flushed  and  graduated  in  hue  as  a  perfect  rose.  I  never 
tire  in  studying  their  color,  in  masses  or  singly  While 
driving  to  San  Mateo,  we  came  upon  little  clumps  of  them, 
springing  out  of  the  rocks  on  the  edge  of  the  road  that  over 
hangs  the  bay,  and  their  vivid  orange,  upheld  on  graceful 
stems,  and  contrasted  with  the  grey  stones  and  the  blue  of 
the  bay,  gave  me  a  joy  which  comes  up  as  fresh  while  I 
write  as  when  I  saw  it  first.  Another  piece  of  cheer  in 
trudes  itself  between  my  eyes  and  the  paper,  and  insists 
that  a  note  shall  be  made  of  it.  I  mean  a  California  black 
bird,  perched  on  a  mustard-stalk  ten  feet  high.  The  wild 
mustard  grows  luxuriantly  on  the  lands  at  the  foot  of  the 
bay.  It  is  a  great  trouble  to  the  fanners,  for  if  the  cows  eat 
even  a  little  of  it — and  they  seem  to  like  it  for  seasoning- 
it  gives  a  pungent  flavor  to  the  milk,  and  makes  the  butter 
bite.  But  a  field  of  it  in  brilliant  yellow  is  decidedly  a 
pleasing  condiment  to  the  general  feast  of  colors.  And  when 
a  blackbird,  with  a  large  spot  of  scarlet  on  each  wing,  flutters 
over  a  tall  spear  of  it,  and  then  alights  with  a  cheery  twitter, 
one  has  a  picture  before  him  winch  gives  twofold  delight 
by  making  him  repeat  the  couplet  of  Holmes— 

The  crack-brained  bobolink  courts  his  crazy  mate, 
Poised  on  a  bulrush  tipsy  with  his  weight. 

If  I  quote  wrongly,  may  the  genial  and  always  accurate 


50  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

Professor  forgive  me.  I  repeat  from  memory,  and  must 
wait  till  the  Mameluke  arrives  from  Boston  with  my  books, 
before  I  can  verify  a  dozen  passages  of  his,  which  the 
California  scenery  sets  to  music  again  in  my  brain. 

And  yet  the  old  Californians,  "  forty-nine-ers,"  sigh 
when  you  speak  in  praise  of  the  May -luxuriance  around  the 
bay.  They  say  that  the  glory  is  over  now.  "  Ichabod"  is 
written  on  the  landscape.  They  rode  over  the  same  districts 
when  there  were  no  roads,  or  ranches,  or  fences,  between 
San  Francisco  and  San  Jose,  and  when  the  horses  wallowed 
and  galloped  through  an  ocean  of  floral  splendor.  The  visi 
tor  can  not  help  noticing,  when  he  leaves  the  base  of  the 
mountains  and  comes  to  the  farms,  how  civilization  has  tamed 
the  land.  The  barley,  and  wheat,  and  bearded  sweeps  of 
simple  green,  look  cool  and  unromantic  in  contrast  with  the 
natural  coat  of  many  colors  which  the  unplowed  districts 
wear.  The  brindled  leopard  has  taken  the  hue  of  the  cat. 
It  is  only  when,  here  and  there,  we  come  upon  a  garden,  and 
see  the  blaze  of  roses  which  bloom  the  year  through,  that  we 
see  how  superior  art  is  to  nature. — T.  Starr  King,  in  Boston 
Transcript,  July,  1860. 


REPORT     OP     A 

LECTURE     ON"     THE    "  PHYSICAL     GEOGRAPHY     OF     CALIFORNIA,"    BY 
PROFESSOR    BLAKE. 


ROFESSOR  BLAKE'S  subject  was  the  "  Phys 
ical  Geography  of  California,"  not  its  paleon 
tology  or  mineralogy,  note,  which  might  have 
been  dull,  but  the  very  thing  that  every  intelli 
gent  Californian  aches  to  know — the  appear 
ance  and  peculiarities  of  our  American  Pacific  slope,  and 
how  they  came  so.  All  this  he  treated  in  the  quiet,  easy 
method  of  one  who  knows  what  he  talks  about.  His  style 
is  admirably  simple  and  direct.  The  chiffonier  of  words 
could  not  have  raked  out  a  dozen  unnecessary  adjectives 
from  the  whole;  the  most  industrious  "boiler"  of  manu 
scripts  could  only  "boil"  it  by  omitting  passages;  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  51 

herd  of  thoughts  could  scarcely  be  corraled  within  fewer 
words  without  danger  of  their  breaking  the  stockade. 

He  opened  with  the  suggestion,  that  perhaps  we  might 
turn  with  a  sense  of  relief  from  the  civil  commotions  of  our 
country  to  the  contemplation  of  some  of  those  great  natural 
laws  under  which  we  live,  and  from  which  there  can  be  no 
secession.     His  topic  was  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of 
our  State,  which  extends  over  nine  and  a  half  degrees  of 
latitude,  or  six  hundred  and  fifty  miles— as  fur  as  on  the 
Atlantic  coast  would  reach  from  Boston  to  Savannah,  and 
its  area  but  little  less  than  all  New  England,  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania  put  together.     As  the  anat 
omist  first  disposes  of  the  bony  system  of  his  subject,  so 
the  lecturer  first  considered  the  mountains  of  California. 
They  are  naturally  separated  into  five  groups— the  Sierra 
Nevada,  the  Coast  Mountains,  the  Bernardino  Mountains, 
the  Peninsular  Mountains,  and  the  Mountains  of  the  Great 
Basin.     That  the  eye  of  the  audience  might  assist  the  ear 
in  comprehending  the  lay  of  the  land  and  its  character,  a 
large  map  of  the  Pacific  slope  was  displayed,  on  which  the 
mountains  were  sketched  in  brick  color,  the  valleys  in  yel 
low,  and  the  water  in  blue  ;  and  the  general  impression  of 
the  audience  was  that  the  brick  color  had  the  best  of  it— 
that  the  mountains  rule  the  State.     The  Sierra,  extending 
nearly  six  hundred  miles,  from  the  northern  boundary  to 
the  head  of  the  Tulare  Valley,  has  no  well-defined  towering 
summit  line,  but  two  or  more  parallel  ranges  of  nearly 
equal  altitude,    forming  a  double   summit;   at  the  north, 
these  summit  ranges  are  usually  some  twenty  miles  apart, 
with  elevated  valleys  between.     Magnificent  Shasta,  at  the 
sources  of  the  Sacramento,   is  the  most  prominent  peak, 
rising  into  the  region  of  perpetual  snows,  15,000  to  17,000 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.     It  is  an  extinct  volcano, 
and  appears  to  belong  rather  to  the  Cascade  Range  than  to 
the  Sierra  Nevada.     Geologically,  this  chain,  whose  west 
ern  face  slopes  long  and  gradually  to  the  valley,  but  on  the 
east  stoops  abruptly  to  the  Great  Basin,  consists  of  granitic 
and  metamorphic  rock.     The  leading  crests  are  a  compact 
gray  syenitic  granite,  flanked  on  the  west  by  gneiss  and 

"I7BRSITT] 


52  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

slates  down  to  the  foot  of  the  slope.  These  slates  are  the 
prevailing  rock  after  descending  from  the  higher  parts  of 
the  Sierra.  They  are  very  ancient  palaeozoic  sedimentary 
beds,  which  have  "been  uplifted  from  the  bottom  of  former 
seas  and  crumpled  like  so  many  leaves  of  a  book,  till  their 
broad  flat  surfaces  stand  on  edge,  and  the  hot  vapors  escap 
ing  from  below  have  filled  the  cracks  with  quartz  and  gold. 
The  lecturer  paused  to  correct  the  absurd  opinion  that  pre 
vails  so  widely,  that  the  geological  character  of  the  country 
differs  totally  from  that  of  any  other  region.  Within  the 
past  month  he  had  found  high  up  on  the  slope  of  the  Sierra, 
the  out- crop  of  a  sandstone,  which  is  known  the  world 
over  as  characteristic  of  gold  and  diamond-bearing  regions 
— a  peculiar  rock  which  has  been  found  in  the  Brazils,  in 
the  Urals,  in  India,  and  in  the  Atlantic  States — and  under 
the  lee  of  which  diamonds  are  almost  invariably  found. 
The  more  modern  strata  of  the  Sierra  have  already  been 
identified  as  of  the  same  age  as  those  of  the  East — and  the 
conclusion  has  been  reached,  that  in  the  tertiary  times  the 
Pacific  and  Atlantic  oceans  were  connected  north  of  the 
tropic  zone.  Many  of  the  eocene  or  early  tertiary  species 
of  mollusks,  found  fossil  at  the  southern  end  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  are  identical  with  those  that  existed  at  the  same 
period  on  the  former  shores  of  the  Apalachian,  and  are  now 
dug  up  from  the  plantations  of  Georgia  and  Alabama, 

A  much  more  modern  system  of  mountains  are  the  Coast 
Range  or  Ranges,  for  they  are  not  one  chief  ridge  as 
formerly  supposed,  but  several,  lying  parallel  with  each 
other,  with  a  series  of  long  parallel  valleys  between.  In 
our  latitude  there  are  three  ridges — the  western,  on  which 
our  city  is  enthroned,  the  central,  or  Contra  Costa  Range, 
and  the  eastern,  or  Diablo  Range.  There  is  a  similar  series 
at  Monterey.  The  breadth  of  country  occupied  by  the 
Coast  Ridges  and  their  valleys,  varies  from  "forty  to  one 
hundred  miles.  Here  and  there  we  find  a  granitic  axis  and 
volcanic  rocks,  but  their  principal  substance  is  composed 
of  the  tertiary  and  secondary  formations.  The  strata  are 
disposed  in  great  wave-like  flexures,  and  abound  in  fossils. 
They  are  the  very  paradise  of  palaeontologists.  Here  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  53 

lecturer  diverted  from  his  course  to  read  the  story  that 
the  new-found  coal  beds  tell  of  the  time  when  the  Sierra 
Nevada  fronted  on  the  Pacific  ;  when  there  was  no  Coast 
Range  like  a  great  sea-wall  outlying  them  ;  when  the  rivers 
from  the  Nevada  slope  emptied  directly  into  the  sea, 
forming  great  deltas  that  supported  luxuriant  forests,  now 
compacted  and  transmuted  into  coal ;  and  such  he  thought 
probably  were  the  conditions  of  our  region  until  the  period 
of  the  pliocene  tertiary. 

The  characteristics  of  the  Bernardino  Range — the  south 
ern  rim  of  the  Great  Basin— more  modern  than  the  Sierras, 
yet  far  older  than  the  Coast  Ranges,  and  of  the  Peninsular 
Mountains  that  abut  almost  at  right  angles  upon  the  Ber 
nardino  and  lift  one  perpetual  ridge  of  jagged  outlines, 
until  at  Cape  St.  Lucas  they  sink  into  the  sea,  were  dis 
patched  more  briefly.  The  mountains  of  the  Great  Basin 
are  all  in  parallelism  with  the  Sierra,  as  are  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  To  the  geologist,  they  seem  only  like  a  succes 
sion  of  folds  in  the  strata — or,  as  one  might  say,  petrified 
wrinkles  in  the  earth's  hide. 

Mr.  Blake  next  called  attention  to  the  connection  between 
the  direction  of  the  mountain  chains  and  the  form  and  ex 
tent  of  the  coast  line.     The  rocky  ranges,  lying  broadside 
to  the  sea,  preclude  it  from  cutting  harbors  into  the  coast, 
yet  it  is  remarkable,  the  absence  of  those  deep,  precipitous 
inlets  so  characteristic  of  rock-bound  coasts  in  high  lati 
tudes.     To  the  fact  that  there  is  one  notable  exception,  we 
owe  our  matchless  harbor.     The  Golden  Gate,  though  not 
a  fiord,  is  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  breaks  in  a  coast 
range  known.     There  does  not  appear*  to  be  any  disloca 
tion,  or  sliding,  or  "fault"  of  the  strata,  but  the  Gate  has 
more  the  appearance  of  a  fissure  widened  by  the  currents. 
By  the  map  he  clearly  showed  by  what  a  happy  arrange 
ment  the  Bay  of  Monterey  was  .formed  between  the  end  of 
one  long  range  and  the  side  of  another,  and  again  at  San 
Luis  Obispo,  how  the  Pacific  excavates  inland  between  the 
diverging  ranges  ;  how  the  islands  that  lie  parallel  to  the 
Santa  Inez  Range  of  the  Bernardino  are  the  peaks  of  a  sub 
merged  range,  while  the  Santa  Barbara  channel  occupies 


54  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  subaqueous  valley  ;  how  the  seven  Farallones,  all  in  one 
straight  line,  twenty  miles  off  the  Heads,  are  the  crest-points 
of  a  range  that  takes  to  the  water  off  Monterey.  So  the 
"bottom  of  our  Pacific  Sea,  off  many  a  mile,  is  all  mountain 
and  valley — not  like  the  Atlantic  submarine  slope,  which 
falls  off  gently  from  the  flat  shore  to  the  deep  sea  soundings. 

To  round  more  perfectly  our  idea  of  the  hydrography  of 
the  coast,  Professor  Blake  pictured  it  as  it  would  look 
lifted  three  hundred  feet  above  its  present  level.  Then  the 
Farallones  would  stand  out  the  peaks  of  a  continuous 
range  of  mountains,  on  the  eastern  side  of  which  would  lie 
the  harbor  of  Monterey.  New  islands  would  appear,  the 
Bay  of  San  Francisco  would  be  drained,  and  the  great 
rivers  be  prolonged  through  it  and  the  Gate  seaward.  Then 
he  sketched  the  vision  that  would  be  presented  if  the  whole 
region  were  sunk  five  hundred  feet  below  its  present  level. 
The  Pacific  would  flood  the  Sacramento,  San  Joaquin  and 
Tulare  valleys.  The  hills  of  San  Francisco  would  be  sub 
merged.  The  Golden  Gate  would  be  widened  two  or  three 
miles,  with  an  occasional  island  rising  here  and  there.  The 
San  Jose  valley  would  be  flooded,  and  the  waters  connect 
ing  with  those  of  the  Bay  of  Monterey  would  leave  the 
Santa  Cruz  and  San  Francisco  mountains  as  islands  lying 
parallel  to  the  Contra  Costa  and  Diablo  ranges.  Los  Ange 
les  would  go  under,  and  the  Gulf  of  California — Cortez's 
Vermilion  Sea— would  push  two  hundred  miles  farther 
north.  But  this,  instead  of  being  a  fancy  sketch,  was  prob 
ably  a  true  picture  of  California  as  it  existed  not  long 
since — speaking  after  the  manner  of  geologists.  That  it 
was  so  is  shown  in  many  places,  but  nowhere  so  distinctly 
perhaps  as  at  the  upper  end  of  the  Tulare  Valley,  where 
hills  of  horizontal  strata  are  HOAV  strewn  with  the  teeth  of 
sharks,  ten  or  twelve  different  species,  all  of  which  are  be 
lieved  to  be  still  living  in  the  adjoining  ocean.  The  first 
recognition  of  the  existence  of  the  mackerel  family  in  the 
Pacific  was  by  Agassiz,  from  their  teeth  [which,  we  may 
add,  the  lecturer  collected  on  these  hills  eight  years  ago]. 
Since  then,  the  fishermen  have  brought  in  living  specimens. 

The  mountains   settled,  Professor  Blake  next  took  his 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  55 

audience  to  the  valleys,  which  he  disposed  in  four  groups — 
the  low  and  broad  valleys,  whose  extent  makes  plains  of 
them,  the  elevated  mountain  valleys,  the  plateaux  of  the 
Great  Basin,  and  the  river  valleys  or  canons.  Among  the 
first  group  is  the  great  valley  ]ying  between  the  Sierra  Ne 
vada  and  the  Coast  Range,  its  area  over  16,000  square  miles, 
more  than  the  combined  areas  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island  and  Connecticut,  We  can  not  stop  to  reproduce,  even 
"in  little,"  the  lecturers  graphic  picture  of  this  valley,  in 
which  so  much  of  New  England  might  be  cradled  without 
cramping ;  a  valley  that,  except  along  the  courses  of  the 
streams,  and  where  its  slope  up  the  foot  of  the  hills  may  be 
shaded  with  oaks,  is  treeless  and  even  shrubless,  its  surface 
in  the  dry  season  parched  and  free  from  grass,  its  tempera 
ture  by  day  rising  often  from  100  to  110  degrees,  and  the 
mirage  constantly  deluding  the  traveler  along  it.  But  his 
sketch  of  the  Colorado  Desert,  which  he  included  in  his 
first  group  of  valleys,  we  must  not  pass  without  remark. 
He  pronounced  it  as  fine  a  specimen  of  the  desert  as  that 
of  Libya  or  Sahara.  It  extends  from  the  base  of  San  Ber 
nardino  southwesterly  180  miles,  part  of  its  surface  being 
below  our  boundary  line  in  Sonora.  Its  area  is  some  9,000 
square  miles ;  and  excepting  the  Colorado,  which  cuts 
across  its  lower  end,  is  without  river  or  lake.  It  stretches 
off  to  the  horizon  on  all  sides  without  one  glimpse  of  vege 
tation  or  life.  Its  surface  is  ashy  and  parched ;  its  frame 
of  mountains  rise  in  rugged  pinnacles  of  brown  rock,  bare 
even  of  soil.  Words  are  unequal  to  the  task  of  describing 
its  apparent  expanses,  the  purity  of  its  air,  the  silence  of  its 
night,  the  brilliancy  of  the  stars  that  overhang  it,  the  tints 
of  the  mountains  at  daybreak,  the  looming  up  of  those 
beyond  the  horizon,  the  glare  of  the  midday  sun,  the  vio 
lence  of  its  local  storms  of  dust  and  sand.  Parts  are  entirely 
destitute  even  of  sand,  being  smooth,  compact,  sun-baked 
clay ;  other  parts  are  covered  with  heaps  of  sand,  disposed 
like  snow-drifts  in  waves  of  fifty  or  eighty  feet  in  height. 
Near  the  mountains  along  the  Colorado,  there  is  a  terrace  as 
flat  as  a  floor  and  paved  with  pebbles  of  nearly  uniform, 
size,  of  porphyry,  jasper,  quartz,  carnelian,  and  agate,  all 


56  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

rounded  by  the  action  of  water,  and  polished  till  they 
glisten,  by  the  driving  sand.  In  this  respect,  again,  the 
porch  of  our  Great  Desert  is  like  that  which  outlies  the 
Lybian  Desert.  Doubtless  the  northern  part  of  the  desert 
is  the  dry  bed  of  an  ancient  lake  of  fresh  water,  whose  beach 
lines  are  strongly  marked.  Probably,  at  a  comparatively 
recent  period,  the  waters  of  the  California  Gulf  covered  all 
the  clay  surface  of  the  desert.  It  lies  below  their  level  now, 
and  if  a  channel  were  cut  through  the  natural  embankment 
of  the  Colorado,  it  would  doubtless  be  covered  again  with 
water.  It  was  very  probable  that  the  Colorado  Desert 
region  was  uplifted  within  historic  times.  Earthquakes 
occasionally  agitate  its  surface,  and  in  1852  there  were  erup 
tions  of  mud  and  hot  water  in  the  central  parts  of  the  valley. 

Next  were  rehearsed  the  characteristics  of  the  Great  Basin, 
so  named  by  Fremont,  and  of  the  newly  discovered  "Death's 
Valley,"  east  of  Owen's  Lake,  which  by  the  barometrical 
readings  lies  at  least  377  feet  below  the  level  of  the  sea — the 
bed  of  a  dried-up  lake  covered  with  layers  of  salt  from  one 
to  three  feet  in  depth,  while  all  the  water  about  it  is  bitter 
and  nauseating — an  American  Dead  Sea,  whereof  the  sea 
has  died  out  literally. 

Then  the  lecturer  came  to  consider  the  climate  of  Califor 
nia,  which  is  distributed  in  zones  that  lie  parallel,  not  to  the 
equator,  but  to  the  coast,  following  the  trendings  of  the 
mountains  To  account  for  it,  he  described  first  the  climatal 
characteristics  of  the  land,  and  then  the  great  currents  of 
the  Pacific.  California  has  no  one  climate,  but  several ;  as 
a  whole,  it  nearer  approaches  that  of  Spain  than  of  any  other 
portion  of  Northern  Europe.  The  air  over  the  great  valley, 
being  heated  by  the  sun,  rushes  up  along  the  slope  of  the 
Sierra  as  in  a  mighty  chimney  ;  and  to  supply  this  current, 
air  is  drawn  inland  through  the  breaks  in  the  Coast  Ranges, 
as  through  a  blower.  The  Golden  Gate,  being  the  broadest 
depression  in  the  range,  and  leading  directly  to  the  interior, 
is  the  great  draught-channel  for  the  valley  furnace.  The 
air  thus  drawn  in  comes  to  us  chilled  by  contact  with  the 
cold  waters  of  the  North,  and  laden  with  their  mists.  The 
f urv  with  which  it  is  drawn  inland  around  the  barriers  that, 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  57 

both  north  and  south  of  us,  force  it  to  seek  the  Gate,  raises 
the  sand  of  the  ocean  beach,  and  piles  it  in  wave-like  hills 
over  the  site  of  our  city.  But  this  beautiful  phenomenon 
we  need  not  stop  to  describe,  as  every  day,  at  this  season, 
we  see  it  repeated.  The  climate  of  the  California  Desert  is 
peculiar  to  itself,  and  finds  no  counterpart  this  side  the  des 
erts  of  Africa  and  Asia.  Here,  as  in  the  Sacramento 
valley,  the  hot  air  rising  between  the  mountain  barrier, 
sucks  in  through  the  San  Bernardino  Pass  another  such  a 
gale  as  is  always,  of  a  summer  day,  rushing  through  the 
Golden  Gate.  The  sand  that  the  gale  bears  along  cuts  deep 
grooves  in  the  granite,  and  polishes  its  surface.  Striking 
against  a  vertical  granite  wall,  it  wears  away  the  minerals 
of  which  it  is  composed  with  different  speed,  according  to 
their  varying  hardness.  The  soft  feldspar  succumbs  first ; 
then  the  quartz,  and  the  garnets  last  of  all.  So  the  project 
ing  masses  that  face  the  wind  all  stand  tipped  with  polished 
garnets  that  point,  like  jeweled  fingers,  to  the  source  of  the 
wind.  The  hottest  place  known  in  the  United  States  is  Fort 
Yuma,  at  the  junction  of  the  Gila  and  Colorado,  where  the 
thermometer  frequently  ranges  at  117°  in  the  shade. 

Professor  Blake  argued  the  reasons  of  the  bracing  effect 
of  the  coast  climate,  which  permits  so  much  greater  amount 
of  physical  and  mental  exertion  without  fatigue  than  any 
other  region  known ;  and  queried  whether  it  was  not  due 
to  the  unobstructed  "actinic  rays"  of  the  sun-beams  reach 
ing  us  through  a  dry  cloudless  atmosphere.  The  abundance 
of  actinic  rays  he  held  to  account  for  the  unusual  brilliancy 
of  the  flowers,  and  to  be  proved  by  the  general  absence  of 
clouds,  and  the  reflection  of  the  parched  light-colored  soil 
during  the  dry  season.  The  next  topic  was  the  vegetation 
of  California,  but  the  little  space  at  our  command  to-day 
forbids  us  to  follow  another  step  the  lecturer  through  this 
most  interesting  portion  of  the1  evening's  entertainment. 
We  must  again  express  our  regret  that  some  one  of  the  gen 
tlemen  who  sat  behind  the  lecturer,  did  not  avail  themselves 
of  their  privilege,  while  providing  a  glass  of  water  for  him, 
to  whisper  "louder"  in  his  ear,  or  that  in  the  audience 
there  was  not  one  man  ill-bred  enough  to  shout  "louder" 


58  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

at  the  start.  Mr.  Blake  has  voice  enough,  but,  probably  not 
suspecting  that  more  was  wanted,  he  did  not  let  it  out. 
This  alone  prevented  every  person  from  feeling  when  he 
retired,  that  this  was  one  of  the  most  profitable  and  deli- 
ciously  refreshing  lectures  that  has  been  delivered  in  Cali 
fornia  for  many  a  day.—  San  Francisco  Bulletin,  July, 
1861. 


STEPHEN  MASSETT  says  that  during  his  visit 
to  England,  and  while  visiting  the  House  of 
Commons,  he  was  presented  to  the  Earl  of  Car 
digan,  who  was  in  command  of  the  llth  Hus 
sars  and  led  the  celebrated  Charge  of  the  Six 
Hundred  at  Balaklava.  Being  one  of  the  first 
to  recite  in  public  Tennyson's  famous  lines,  he  had  a  natural 
ambition  to  deliver  them  in  the  presence  of  Lord  Cardigan. 
A  polite  note  was  received  from  the  Earl,  inviting  Mr. 
Massett  to  call  upon  him  at  his  residence  in  Portman  Square, 
where  after  rendering  the  poem  to  the  Earl  and  his  lady, 
the  following  graphic  account  of  the  fight  was  given  him  :— 
At  about  1  o'clock,  after  the  Heavy  Brigade  had  been 
attacked  by  the  Russian  cavalry,  the  whole  of  the  cavalry 
division  was  considerably  advanced  toward  the  enemy. 
The  Light  Brigade  was  ordered  to  dismount  to  relieve  their 
horses.  Suddenly  they  were  ordered  to  "  mount."  Aid- 
de-camp  Captain  Nolan  came  forward  and  told  Lord  Lucan, 
commanding  the  cavalry,  that  the  Light  Brigade  were  to 
attack  the  Russians  in  the  valley.  Lord  Lucan  rode  up  to 
Lord  Cardigan  and  said  :  "It  is  Lord  Raglan's  order  that 
the  '  Light  Brigade'  is  to  attack  the  Russians  in  the  valley." 
Lord  Cardigan's  answer  was,  saluting  with  his  sword. 
u  Certainly,  my  Lord,  but  you  will  allow  me  to  inform  you, 
that  there  is  a  Russian  battery  in  front,  one  on  each  flank, 
and  the  ground  on  the  flank  is  covered  with  Russian  rifle 
men  !"  Lord  Lucan' s  answer  was:  "I  can  not  help -that; 
it  is  Lord  Raglan's  positive  order  that  the  '  Light  Brigade  ' 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  59 

is  to  attack  them."  Lord  Cardigan  then  formed  hisb^gade 
of  five  regiments,  with  three  regiments  in  the  front  line,  and 
two  in  the  second.  Lord  Lucan  ordered  Lord  Cardigan's 
regiment,  the  llth  Hussars,  "back,  so  as  to  form  a  support 
on  the  left  rear  of  the  front  line.  Lord  Cardigan  imme 
diately  ordered  the  advance.  After  going  sixty  yards  or 
so,  Captain  Nolan  rode  obliquely  across  the  front,  when  a 
Russian  shell  fell  upon  the  ground  near  Captain  Nolan,  and 
not  very  far  from  Lord  Cardigan.  Nolan's  horse  turned 
round  and  carried  him  to  the  rear.  Lord  Cardigan  then 
led  the  brigade  down  to  the  main  battery  in  front,  about 
one  mile  and  a  quarter  distant.  On  arriving  at  a  position 
about  eighty  yards  from  the  battery,  the  fire  became  very 
severe,  and  the  officers  were  considerably  excited,  and  had 
to  be  called  to  "  be  steady."  Cardigan,  at  the  head  of  his 
brigade,  passed  close  by  the  muzzle  of  a  gun,  which  was 
fired  as  he  entered  the  battery.  He  then  rode  straight  for 
ward  through  the  Russian  limber  carriages,  and  came  up 
close  to  the  Russian  line  of  cavalry.  His  brigade  did  not 
follow  him.  Lord  Cardigan  was  attacked  by  two  Cossacks, 
slightly  wounded  and  nearly  dismounted.  He  fenced  off 
the  Cossacks,  and  gradually  retired  from  others  who  were 
attempting  to  surround  him.  When  he  got  back  to  the 
battery,  they  had  all  retired  and  diverged  to  the  left.  Lord 
Cardigan  slowly  retreated,  and  met  General  Scarlett,  com 
manding  the  heavy  brigade  of  the  cavalry.  Cardigan  told 
him  that  the  "Light  Brigade"  was  destroyed.  The  bri 
gade  was  then  counted  by  his  staff  officer,  and  it  was  found 
that  there  were  only  195  men  left  out  of  650. 

Lord  Cardigan  immediately  rode  off  to  Lord  Raglan  to 
report  what  had  taken  place.  The  first  thing  Lord  Raglan 
said,  in  a  very  angry  tone,  was,  "What,  sir,  could  you 
possibly  mean  by  attacking  a  battery  in  front,  contrary  to 
all  the  usages  of  warfare  and  the  customs  of  the  service  ?" 
To  which  Lord  Cardigan  replied,  "My  Lord,  I  hope  you 
will  not  blame  me,  for  I  received  a  positive  order  from  my 
superior  officer  in  front  of  the  troops  to  attack  them,  and  I 
was  quite  as  well  aware  of  the  unusual  course  of  proceed 
ing  ordered."  Lord  Raglan  inquired  what  had  been  done. 


./ 


60  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

To  which  Lord  Cardigan  replied,  that  "he  had  led  the 
brigade  into  the  Russian  battery  ;  that  he  had  ridden  up  to 
the  Russian  cavalry  ;  that  he  was  not  followed  by  the 
brigade ;  was  wounded  and  nearly  dismounted,  and  had 
some  difficulty  in  getting  away  from  a  number  of  Cossacks  ; 
that  the  brigade  was  nearly  destroyed,  there  being  only 
195  remaining." 

The  whole  of  this  memorable  affair  occupied  the  brief 
time  of  twenty  minutes! 


THE    EIGHTY-EIGHTH    ANNIVERSARY    OF    THE    FOUNDATION  OF    SAN 

FRANCISCO. 

From  the  Alta  California,  October  9,  1864. 

HE  Mission  of  San  Francisco  was  founded  on 
the  9th  October,  1776,  eighty-eight  years  ago ; 
and  the  present  city  of  San  Francisco,  being 
the  successor  of  that  Mission,  may  consider  this 
as  its  own  anniversary.  As  such  we  shall  treat 
it,  and  we  shall  do  honor  to  the  day,  by  making 
it  the  occasion  of  stating  the  manner  in  which  the  Mission 
was  founded,  and  narrating  a  few  events  of  its  early  history. 

THE    DISCOVERY    OF    THE    BAY    OF    SAN    FRANCISCO. 

It  is  supposed  that  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  was  first 
discovered  in  the  month  of  October,  1769,  by  the  Friar  Juan 
Crespi,  who  had  started  from  San  Diego  on  the  14th  July 
previous,  at  the  head  of  a  party  of  soldiers,  with  instruc 
tions  to  found  a  Mission  on  the  Bay  of  Monterey.  Coming 
northward  he  reached  that  bay  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Salinas  River,  and  finding  no  harbor  there,  he  determined 
to  continue  his  journey  in  the  hope  of  finding  a  better  site 
for  a  Mission.  He  found  a  magnificent  bay,  believed  that 
he  was  the  first  white  man  to  discover  it,  and  named  it,  after 
the  founder  of  his  monastic  order?  San  Francisco.  Thus  it 
was  that  the  bay  obtained  the  name  which  it  still  has,  and 
which  has  been  communicated  to  the  Mission  and  city. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  61 


THE    PATROX    SAINT    OF    OUR    CITY. 

Our  city  bears  the  name  of  a  man  who  is  regarded  as  a 
saint  by  the  Catholic  Church,  who  founded  the  order  that 
established  all  the  Missions  of  Upper  California,  in  whose 
especial  honor  this  Mission  was  established,  and  who  was 
regarded  as  its  patron  saint,  in  accordance  with  Catholic 
custom,  which  allows  or  requires  every  church  and  mission 
to  be  "under  the  invocation1'  of  some  saint,  whose  plead 
ings  before  the  Throne  of  Grace  shall  secure  especial  bless 
ings  for  it. 

San  Francisco  de  Assisi,  as  he  is  called  in  Spanish,  or  St. 
Francis,  as  we  call  him  in  English,  was  born  at  the  town  of 
Assisi,  near  Rome,  in  the  year  1182.  His  family  name  was 
Bernardone ;  his  baptismal  name,  Giovanni,  which  latter 
title  was  neglected  and  Francisco  substituted  in  common 
use,  because  of  his  familiarity  with  the  French  tongue.  He 
was  a  wild  boy  and  a  dissolute  young  man  ;  but  after 
having  been  imprisoned  a  year  as  a  captive  taken  in  war, 
and  subsequently  confined  to  his  bed  by  severe  illness  for  a 
considerable  time,  he  repented  for  his  sins,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-four  gave  up  his  wealth,  distributed  his  rich  cloth 
ing  among  the  poor,  and  devoted  himself  to  a  life  of  beg 
gary,  poverty,  prayer,  chastity,  penance,  and  charity.  He 
regarded  the  injunction  of  Jesus  to  the  Apostles  to  take 
"  neither  staves,  nor  scrip,  nor  bread,  nor  money,  nor  two 
coats,"  as  binding  upon  all  teachers  of  the  Christian  religion, 
and  especially  upon  himself,  so  he  laid  up  nothing  for  the 
morrow,  would  own  no  property,  and  would  wear  no  dress 
save  one  woolen  gown  tied  at  the  waist  by  a  hempen  cord. 
That  was  a  time  when  penance  was  regarded  as  meritorious, 
and  when  industry  and  provision  for  the  future  were  not 
virtues.  Those  features  in  the  conduct  of  Francis  which 
find  the  least  commendation  in  this  age,  attracted  the  most 
admiration  in  that ;  and  in  a  few  years  he  was  surrounded 
by  a  number  of  imitators  who  besought  him  to  organize 
them  into  a  body,  so  that  they  might  have  their  convents 
and  act  under  a  regular  system.  He  consented,  and  the 
order  still  exists.  He  died  on  the  4th  of  October,  1226. 


62  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

. — — ^ 
t 

Some  of  Ms  writings  have  been  preserved,  but  they  possess 
no  literary  merit 

THE    FRANCISCAN    ORDER. 

The  Franciscan  Order  of  friars  soon  rose  to  great  im 
portance.  Forty  years  after  the  death  of  the  founder  it 
numbered  two  hundred  thousand  members.  It  was  for  a 
long  time  considered  as  the  leading  monastic  order  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  still  numbers  about  eighty  thousand 
friars.  Their  rules  of  life  were  the  same  as  those  of  their 
founder.  Their  dress  was  dark-brown  in  color,  and  of 
coarse  material.  Many  of  their  leading  men  abandoned 
wealth  and  power  to  become  mendicants  and  monks.  After 
the  Reformation  they  took  an  active  part  in  missionary 
enterprises,  especially  in  ]STew  Spain,  as  the  Spanish  Colo 
nies  in  North  America  were  called  previous  to  the  War  of 
Independence.  Among  their  other  enterprises  they  formed 
the  first  white  settlements  in  Upper  California. 

THE    EXPEDITION    TO    FOUND    SAN   FRANCISCO. 

The  Mission  of  San  Francisco  de  Assisi,  was  founded  by 
Friars  Francisco  Palou  and  Benito  Cambon,  at  the  head  of 
a  party  which  started  from  Monterey  on  the  17th  June, 
1776.  In  the  party  were  seventeen  soldiers,  under  command 
of  Lieutenant  Jose  Moraga.  All  the  soldiers,  and  seven 
colonists,  took  wives  and  children  with  them.  There  were 
servants,  packers,  vaqueros,  two  Indian  servants  of  the 
friars,  and  two  Monterey  Indians,  brought  in  the  hope — 
which  proved  to  be  vain — that  they  might  serve  for  inter 
preters.  Accompanying  this  expedition  were  a  train  of 
pack-mules,  laden  with  provisions,  grain,  and  tools,  and  a 
number  of  horses,  cows,  and  sheep,  that  might  serve  as  the 
beginning  of  the  herds  of  the  future  Mission.  After  a 
journey  of  ten  days  they  arrived,  on  the  27th  June,  at 
Washerwoman's  Lagoon,  just  west  of  the  present  Russian 
Hill,  and  there  they  camped  and  erected  fifteen  tents.  The 
Indians  of  the  vicinity  came  to  them  in  a  friendly  manner, 
and  received  presents  of  beads,  which  they  repaid  with 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  63 

donations  of  grass  seeds.     Then,  next  day,  a  lint  was  made 
of  the  boughs  of  trees,  and  Palou  said  mass  in  it. 

It  had  been  arranged  that  a  little  vessel  shonld  leave 
Monterey  with  more  men  and  supplies  in  a  few  days  after 
the  departure  of  the  land  party,  but  it  did  not  arrive  until 
the  18th  of  August.  Meantime  land  parties  were  sent  out 
to  examine  the  peninsula.  The  men  of  the  land  party  arid 
the  sailors  built  wooden  houses  thatched  with  tule,  at  the 
places  selected  for  the  Presidio  or  fort,  and  the  Mission. 
Solemn  possession  was  taken  of  the  Presidio  on  the  17th  of 
September.  The  friars  said  mass,  hoisted  and  adored  the 
banner  of  the  Holy  Cross,  the  commandant  took  possession 
in  the  name  of  the  king  of  Spain,  and  salutes  were  fired 
with  artillery  and  musketry.  The  packet  boat  sailed  north 
ward  to  survey  the  bay  in  that  direction,  and  a  land  party 
followed  its  shores  on  the  south  and  east.  At  the  end  of  a 
week  they  returned,  having  satisfied  themselves  that  the 
best  place  for  a  religious  establishment  was  near  the  Presidio. 

THE    FOUNDATION"    OF    THE    MISSION. 

On  the  9 th  of  .October  the  Mission  was  founded.  A  pro 
cession,  comprising  the  entire  male  population — soldiers, 
settlers,  and  sailors— headed  by  the  priests,  who  bore  aloft 
the  banner  of  the  Cross  and  a  statuette  of  St.  Francis, 
marched  from  the  Presidio  to  the  Mission,  where  the  sacred 
objects  were  placed  on  the  altar.  Father  Palou,  as  the 
senior  friar,  chanted  a  mass  and  preached  a  sermon  about 
the  founder  of  his  order,  as  the  patron  saint  of  the  Mission. 
At  proper  intervals  in  the  sacred  ceremonies,  the  soldiers 
and  sailors  fired  salutes  of  musketry,  in  accordance  with 
the  custom  of  their  country.  No  corner-stone  was  laid,  no 
mason  declared  that  the  building  had  been  commenced  in 
udue  form  and  workmanlike  manner."  Those  were  forms 
neither  customary  nor  necessary. 

The  site  first  chosen  for  the  Mission  was  on  the  western 
shore  of  Washerwoman's  Lagoon.  Father  Palou,  whose 
biography  of  Junipero  Serra  contains  the  only  printed 
record  of  these  events,  says  : — 

"  Se  determine  empezar  a  cortar  madera  para  las  fabricas 


IVBES 

r»y 


64  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

del  Presidio  cerca  de  la  entrada  del  pnerto  j  para  las  de  la 
Mision  en  este  mismo  sitio  de  la  Laguna,  en  el  plan  6  llano 
que  tiene  al  Poniente." 

This  we  translate  as  follows  : — 

"  We  determined  to  begin  to  cut  wood  for  the  buildings  of 
the  Presidio  near  the  entrance  of  the  port,  and  for  those  of 
the  Mission  in  the  same  site,  on  the  level  place  west  of  the 
lagoon." 

We  have  no  information  when  the  Mission  was'  moved  to 
its  present  place. 

No  Indians  were  present  at  the  foundation  of  a  Mission 
established  for  their  conversion.  The  tribe  which  then 
occupied  the  northern  part  of  this  peninsula  was  then 
engaged  in  a  war  with  another  tribe  called  Salsones,  who 
lived  at  the  place  now  known  as  San  Mateo.  These 
Salsones,  in  the  middle  of  August,  surprised  the  San  Fran 
cisco  Indians,  killed  many  of  them,  wounded  others,  and 
burned  their  rancherias.  The  Spaniards  knew  nothing  of 
the  affair  until  too  late.  The  San  Francisco  Indians  then 
fled  on  rafts  of  tule,  some  to  the  islands  in  the  bay,  and 
others  to  the  opposite  shore,  where  they  remained  until  the 
next  March. 

The  first  missionaries  in  charge  of  the  Mission  of  San 
Francisco  were  the  two  who  were  present  at  its  foundation- 
Francisco  Palou  and  Benito  Cambon.  The  latter  was  a 
man  of  no  special  note,  but  Palou  was  a  man  of  promise. 
He  was  a  peculiar  favorite  with  Junipero,  whose  biography 
he  wrote  after  his  return  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  where  he 
became  Superior  of  the  Convent  of  San  Fernando,  the  chief 
establishment  of  the  order  on  the  American  continent. 

The  first  baptism  of  an  Indian  at  -the  new  Mission  took 
place  on  the  day  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  1777,  and  within 
seven  years  from  that  time,  four  hundred  others  were 
declared  converts  to  Christianity,  and  received  into  the 
Church.  Father  Junipero  visited  the  Mission  only  once, 
and  then  spent  ten  days — from  the  first  to  the  tenth  of  Octo 
ber,  1777.  As  for  the  subsequent  history  of  the  Mission, 
we  shall  now  mention  only  a  few  facts. 

In  1800  the  friars  reported  that  they  had  647  Indian  con- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  65 

verts,  7,080  neat -cattle,  6,238  sheep,  999  horses,  and  an 
annual  yield  of  5,000  bushels  of  grain,  under  which  are 
included,  wheat,  barley,  maize,  beans,  and  pease.  In  1805 
there  were  10,000  neat-cattle,  and  11,000  sheep;  but  soon 
after  that  the  political  troubles  of  Mexico  arose,  and  the 
Missions,  San  Francisco  among  them,  began  to  suffer,  and 
in  1835  their  property  was  seized,  and  they  ceased  to  have 
any  influence  as  Missions. 


THE    EAST    AND    THE    WEST. 

[This  poem  was  written  by  Theodore  Winthrop,  and   after  his 
death  was  found  among  his  unpublished  papers.] 

WE  of  the  East  spread  our  sails  to  the  sea, 

You  of  the  We,st  stride  over  the  land ; 
Both  are  to  scatter  the  hopes  of  the  free, 

As  the  sower  sheds  golden  grain  from  his  hand. 

'Tis  ours  to  circle  the  stormy  bends 

Of  a  continent — yours,  its  ridge  to  cross ; 
We  must  double  the  capes  where  a  long  world  ends, 

Lone  cliifs  where  two  limitless  oceans  toss. 

They  meet  and  are  baffled  'mid  tempest  and  wrath, 
Breezes  are  skirmishing,  angry  winds  roar ; 

While  poised  on  some  desperate  plunge  of  our  path, 
We  count  up  the  blackening  wrecks  on  the  shore. 

And  you  through  dreary  and  thirsty  ways, 
Where  rivers  are  sand  and  winds  are  dust ; 

Through  sultry  nights  and  feverish  days, 
Move  westward  still  as  the  sunset  must ; 

Where  the  scorched  air  quivers  along  the  scopes, 
Where  the  slow-footed  cattle  lie  down  and  die ; 

Where  horizons  draw  backward  till  baffled  hopes 
Are  weary  of  measureless  waste  and  sky. 

Yes,  ours  to  battle  relentless  gales, 

And  yours  the  brave  and  the  patient  way ; 

But  we  hold  the  storms  in  our  trusty  sails, 
And  for  you  the  life-giving  fountains  play. 
5 


66  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

There  are  stars  above  us,  and  stars  for  you — 
Rest  on  the  path  and  calm  on  the  main ; 

Storms  are  but  zephyrs  when  hearts  are  true ; 
We  are  no  weaklings,  quick  to  complain, 

When  lightnings  flash  bivouac-fires  into  gloom, 
And  with  crashing  of  forests  the  rains  sheet  down ; 

Or  when  ships  plunge  onward  where  night  clouds  loom; 
Defiant  of  darkness  and  meeting  its  frown. 

These  are  the  days  of  motion  and  march  ; 

Now  we  are  ardent,  and  young,  and  brave ; 
Let  them  that  come  after  us  build  the  arch 

Of  our  triumph,  and  plant  with  the  laurel  our  grave. 

Time  enough  to  rear  temples  when  heroes  are  dead, 
Time  enough  to  sing  paeans  after  the  fight ; 

Prophets  urge  onward  the  future's  ti^ad, 
We — we  are  to  kindle  its  beacon-light. 

Our  sires  lit  torches  of  quenchless  flame 

To  illumine,  our  darkness,  if  night  should  be , 

But  day  is  a  friend  to  our  standards,  and  shame 
Be  ours  if  we  wTin  not  a  victory  ! 

Man  is  nobler  than  men  have  been, 

Souls  are  vaster  than  souls  have  dreamed ; 

There  are  broader  oceans  than  eyes  have  seen, 
Noons  more  glowing  than  yet  have  beamed. 

Creeping  shadows  cower  low  on  our  land  ; 

These  shall  not  dim  our  grander  day ; 
Stainless  knights  must  be  those  who  stand 

Full  in  the  van  of  a  world's  array  ! 

When  shall  we  cease  our  meager  distrust  ? 

When  to  each  other  our  true  hearts  yield  ? 
To  make  this  world  an  Eden,  we  must 

Fling  away  each  weapon  and  shield. 

And  meet  each  man  as  a  friend  and  mate, 
Trample  and  spurn  and  forget  our  pride ; 

Glad  to  accept  an  equal  fate, 

Laboring,  conquering,  side  by  side. 


y 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

AN    INTERESTING    EVENT    IN    CALIFORNIA    HISTORY. 

From  the  Sacramento  Union,  September,  1859. 


N  an  article  on  the  Pioneers  on  Friday  allusion 
was  made  to  the  festive  proceedings  attending 
the  signing  of  our  State  Constitution  by  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Monterey  Convention.  It  was  stated 
that  the  Constitution  was  signed  on  the  3d  of  Sep 
tember,  a  mistake  which  we  were  led  into  by  similar  bad 
authorities  to  those  which  we  have  seen  disputing  as  to 
whether  the  State  was  admitted  on  the  9th  or  10th  of  Sep 
tember.  The  event,  which  is  very  gracefully  portrayed  in 
the  following  sketch  from  an  old  number  of  the  Alia 
California,  took  place  on  the  13th  of  October.  We  believe 
the  article  copied  below  has  never  been  republished  before : 
SIGNING  THE  CONSTITUTION.  —  The  thirteenth  day  of 
October,  in  the  year  1849,  was  one  of  those  eventful  epochs 
in  the  history  of  California  which  will  ever  be  a  day  of 
remembrance  and  interest— the  beginning  of  a  new  era  ! 

It  was  a  day  of  beauty  and  sunshine.  The  sun  rose  in 
all  his  might,  and  as  he  went  higher  and  higher  in  the 
heavens,  the  ocean  mist  that  hung  lazily  upon  the  pleasant 
town  of  Monterey,  and  seemed  dallying  softly  with  the 
placid  waters  of  the  lovely  bay,  gradually  shrunk  from  his 
amorous  embrace,  until  it  had  rolled  up  the  hill-sides,  and 
died  away,  leaving  its  last  kiss  upon  the  crests  of  the 
stately  pines.  And  as  the  day  grew  brighter  and  hotter,  a 
balmy  breeze  swept  gently  past— so  gentle  that  it  did  not 
ripple  the  quiet  waters— so  cool  that  it  seemed  to  soothe 
and  calm  all  unworthy  and  restless  desires— and  yet  so 
potent  that  it  filled  the  mind  with  great  thoughts  that 
appeared  to  have  been  called  into  being  by  the  softened 
booming  of  the  mighty  breakers  of  the  Pacific,  which  the 
zephyr  bore  ever  with  it. 

Such  was  the  day  on  which  the  Constitution  of  the  State 
of  California  was  signed  by  the  delegates  in  Convention 
assembled,  at  Colton  Hall,  in  the  city  of  Monterey. 


68  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

According  to  previous  arrangements,  at  a  little  before  three 
o'clock,  P.  M.,  the  President  of  the  Convention  appeared  in 
the  hall,  leaning  on  the  arm  of  his  son,  having  risen  from 
his  sick  bed  to  be  present  at  this  last  important  act  in  the 
drama.  At  a  few  minutes  past  three,  preliminary  matters 
having  been  disposed  of,  the  delegates  commenced  the 
signing.  Scarcely  had  the  first  man  touched  his  pen  to  the 
paper  when  the  loud  booming  of  cannon  resounded  through 
the  hall.  At  the  same  moment  the  flags  at  the  different 
head- quarters,  and  on  board  the  shipping  in  the  port,  were 
slowly  unfurled  and  run  up.  As  the  firing  of  the  national 
salute  of  thirty-one  guns  proceeded  at  the  fort,  and  the 
signing  of  the  Constitution  went  on  at  the  hall,  the  captain 
of  an  English  bark  then  in  port  paid  a  most  beautiful  and 
befitting  compliment  to  the  occasion  and  the  country,  by 
hoisting  at  his  main  the  American  flag  above  those  of  every 
other  nation,  making,  at  the  moment  that  the  thirty-first 
gun  was  fired,  a  line  of  colors  from  the  main  truck  to  the 
vessel's  deck.  And  when,  at  last,  that  thirty-first  gun 
came — the  first  gun  for  California — three  as  hearty  and  as 
patriotic  cheers  as  ever  broke  from  human  lips  were  given 
by  the  Convention  for  the  new  State. 

It  was  an  hour  of  patriotic  and  noble  feelings— an  hour 
fraught  with  impulses  and  resolves  such  as  pen  can  not 
describe.  Those  who  had  labored  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  the  new  State — coming  from  different  nations  and  climes 
— felt  that,  from  that  hour,  they  were  one.  One  hope  ani 
mated  them — one  wish  nerved  them — one  impulse  guided 
them  ;  that  hope,  that  wish,  and  that  impulse  was — Califor 
nia  !  The  American  hearts  beat  strongly  and  proudly,  as 
they  felt  that  they  had  planted  the  flag  under  which  they 
were  born  and  reared  upon  this  wild  western  shore  of  the 
new  continent — the  alien  felt  that  only  where  that  flag 
waved  was  found  the  home  of  those  who  fled  from  tyranny 
—  the  Californians  were  convinced  that  they  were  con 
quered  but  to  become  the  brothers  and  friends  of  the  con 
querors. 

But  the  most  interesting  and  affecting  part  of  the  pro 
ceedings  of  the  day  was  the  call  by  the  delegates,  after  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  69 

adjournment,  upon  the  Governor.  The  veteran  pioneer, 
Captain  John  A.  Sutter,  had  been  appointed  by  unanimous 
resolution,  to  address  General  Riley,  on  behalf  of  the  Con 
vention,  and  on  its  dissolution,  the  delegates,  with  the  ser- 
gant-at  arms  at  their  head,  proceeded  in  a  body  to  the 
mansion  of  the  "Hero  of  Contreras."  Arrived  there,  they 
were  welcomed  by  a  kind  salutation  and  a  cordial  shake  of 
the  hand  ;  after  which  Captain  Sutter  thanked  the  General, 
in  a  short  and  neat  speech,  for  the  aid  and  assistance  he 
had  so  freely  given  the  Convention  in  the  prosecution  of  its 
labors,  and  trusted  that  the  people  of  California  would  be 
as  fortunate  hereafter  in  obtaining  a  Governor  whose  firm 
ness,  moderation  and  patriotic  exertions  for  their  welfare 
had  won  for  him  greater  glory  than  had  come  to  him  from 
the  blood-stained  fields  of  Mexico. 

The  General's  reply  was  one  of  the  happiest  efforts  of  the 
kind  we  ever  listened  to.  It  could  not  be  called  a  speech  ; 
for  it  bore  no  relation  to  the  fustian  of  which  such  articles 
are  usually  manufactured  ;  but  it  was  a  simple,  fervent  and 
eloquent  recital  of  a  patriotic  desire  for  the  good  of  Califor 
nia.  He  did  not  profess  to  make  a  speech — he  had  never 
made  a  speech  in  his  life — and  even  if  he  were  a  professed 
speech- maker  he  did  not  doubt  that  the  occasion  and  the 
expression  of  the  Convention's  thanks  would  overcome  him, 
as  it  did  now,  and  prevent  his  utterance  of  the  emotions  of 
gratitude  with  which  his  heart  was  full.  He  had  labored 
to  the  utmost  of  his  ability  to  promote  the  interests  of  this 
country,  and  though  he  did  not  expect  to  be  one  of  her 
citizens,  he  felt  it  to  be  the  proudest  day  of  his  life  when  he 
could  say  that  he  had  assisted  in  laying  the  foundation  of 
that  glory  and  greatness  which  he  foresaw  would  soon  be 
the  portion  of  the  new  State  of  California.  No  !  Not  even 
amid  the  smoke  and  carnage  of  battle,  or  the  enthusiasm 
and  glory  of  victory,  had  he  ever  felt  so  full  of  devotion  to 
his  country  and  her  progress,  so  desirous  to  promote  and 
defend  her  interests  and  her  fame,  or  so  grateful  that  he 
had  been  permitted  to  become  an  humble  instrument  in  the 
advancement  of  the  greatest  of  modern  republics. 

At  the  conclusion  of  General  Riley' s  remarks,  three  cheers 


70  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

were  given  for  "the  Governor  of  California,"  three  for 
"Captain  John  A.  Sutter,"  and  three  more  for  the  "New 
State  \'  and  then,  after  partaking  of  the  refreshments  pro 
vided  by  the  hospitality  of  the  Governor,  the  company 
separated  to  make  their  final  preparations  for  departure  to 
their  respective  homes. 

Such  was  the  day,  such  the  ceremonies,  and  such  the 
auspices  under  which  California  struck  her  first  blow  for 
admission  into  the  Union.  It  was  a  day  that  can  never  be 
forgotten;  for  with  it  is  linked  all  of  good  and  evil  that  is 
to  befall  her  in  her  new  and  untried  path.  The  day  itself 
was  typical  of  the  feelings  of  those  who  were  intrusted 
with  the  high  mission  of  forming  a  Constitution.  When 
the  morning  sun  rose  in  mist  and  gloom,  doubts  and  sadness 
filled  their  minds.  They  felt  that  theirs  was  a  heavy  re 
sponsibility  ;  that  the  instrument  they  were  about  to  sign 
must  become  the  source  of  power,  greatness,  and  fame  to  a 
mighty  State,  or  the  impediment  to  all  these,  or  perhaps  its 
ruin.  And  they  were  thoughtful  and  anxious,  though 
they  were  assured  in  their  hearts  that  they  had  acted 
honestly  and  patriotically.  But,  as  the  day  grew  older, 
the  chilling  fog  disappeared,  and  with  it  went  all  fear  and 
gloom,  and  there  grew  up  instead  a  firm  resolve  to  go  forth 
and  labor  well  and  patiently  for  the  accomplishment  of  that 
destiny  which  is  to  make  the  United  States  the  greatest  of 
republics,  and  California  the  EMPIRE  STATE  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 


COMMERCE    OF   THE    WORLD. 

RANGE  exports  wines,   brandies,  silks,  fancy 
articles,  jewelry,  clocks,  watches,   paper,  per 
fumery,  and  fancy  goods  generally. 

Italy  exports  corn,  oil,  tar,  flax,  wines,  essence, 
dye-stuffs,    drugs,   fine   marble,  soap,    paintings, 
engravings,  mosaics,  and  salt. 

Prussia  exports  linens,  woolens,  zinc,  articles  of  iron, 
copper,  and  brass,  indigo,  wax,  hams,  musical  instruments, 
tobacco,  wines,  and  porcelain. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  71 

Germany  exports  wool,  woolen  goods,  linens,  rags,  corn, 
timber,  iron,  lead,  tin,  flax,  hemp,  wines,  wax,  tallow,  and 
cattle. 

Austria  exports  minerals,  raw  and  manufactured  silk, 
thread,  grass,  grain,  wax,  tallow,  nutgall,  wines,  honey, 
and  mathematical  instruments. 

England  exports  cotton,  woolen,  glass,  hardware,  earthen 
ware,  cutlery,  iron,  metallic  wares,  salt,  coal,  watches,  tin, 
silks,  and  linens. 

Russia  exports  tallow,  flax,  hemp,  flour,  iron,  copper, 
linseed,  lard,  hides,  wax,  duck,  cordage,  bristles,  fur,  pot 
ash,  and  tar. 

Spain  exports  wine,  brandy,  oil,  fresh  and  dried  fruits, 
quicksilver,  sulphur,  salt,  cork,  saffron,  anchovies,  silks, 
and  woolens. 

China  exports  tea,  rhubarb,  musk,  ginger,  zinc,  borax, 
cassia,  filegree  works,  ivory  ware,  lacquered  ware,  and 
porcelain. 

Turkey  exports  coffee,  opium,  silk,  drugs,  gums,  dried 
fruits,  tobacco,  wines,  camel's  hair,  carpets,  shawls,  and 
morocco. 

Hindostan  exports  silks,  shawls,  carpets,  opium,  salt 
peter,  pepper,  gum,  indigo,  cinnamon,  cochineal,  diamonds, 
pearls,  and  drugs. 

Mexico  exports  gold  and  silver,  cochineal,  indigo,  sarsa- 
parilla,  vanilla,  jalap,  fustic,  campeachy,  wool,  pimento, 
drugs,  and  dye-stuffs. 

Brazil  exports  coffee,  indigo,  sugar,  rice,  hides,  dried 
meats,  tallow,  gold,  diamonds  and  other  precious  stones, 
gums,  mahogany,  and  india  rubber. 

West  Indies  export  sugar,  molasses,  rum,  tobacco,  cigars, 
mahogany,  dye-wood,  coffee,  pimento,  fresh  fruits  and  pre 
serves,  rubber,  wax,  ginger,  and  other  spices. 

Switzerland  exports  cattle,  cheese,  butter,  tallow,  dried 
fruit,  lime,  silks,  velvets,  laces,  jewelry,  paper,  and  gun 
powder. 

East  Indies  export  cloves,  nutmegs,  mace,  pepper,  rice, 
indigo,  gold  dust,  camphor,  benzoin,  sulphur,  ivory,  rattans, 
sandal  wood,  zinc  and  nuts. 


72  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

United  States  exports  principally  agricultural  produce, 
cotton,  tobacco,  flour,  provisions  of  all  kinds,  lumber, 
turpentine,  and  wearing  apparel. 


SECRET    WRITING. 


ITCH  has  been  said  on  the  subject  of  secret  writ 
ing,  and  many  methods  devised  for  conveying 
private  or  important  messages  in  such  a  way 
that,  if  they  fall  into  improper  hands,  their 
meaning  will  be  safe  from  detection.  Sympa 
thetic  ink  is  sometimes  used,  which  is  so  made  that  the 
writing  disappears  in  a  short  time,  but  again  becomes  visi 
ble  on  the  application  of  heat  or  some  chemical  prepara 
tion.  But  secrets  thus  sealed,  are  readily  unsealed  by  any 
chemist.  The  most  common  method  is  to  construct  a 
cipher,  in  which  new  and  strange  characters  stand  for 
letters  or  words,  or  one  word  stands  for  another,  or  the 
words  to  be  read  are  mixed  with  other  words,  but  placed 
in  some  determined  order.  But  few,  if  any,  of  these  are 
beyond  the  reach  of  an  ingenious  mind  to  interpret.  And 
it  is  not  so  much  guess-work  as  many  people  suppose.  In 
unraveling  a  difficult  cipher  numerous  experiments  have 
to  be  tried,  but  the  operations  are  all  based  on  comparison, 
and  should  be  regular  and  systematic. 

Poe,  in  his  story  of  "The  Gold  Bug,"  gives  some  valu 
able  hints  on  the  interpretation  of  the  most  common  cryp 
tographs.  He  contends  that  the  ingenuity  of  man  can  con 
struct  no  enigma  which  the  ingenuity  of  .man  can  not  un 
ravel.  And  he  actually  read  several  very  difficult  ciphers 
which  were  sent  to  him  after  the  publication  of  "The  Gold 
Bug." 

But  we  saw,  several  years  ago,  a  method  which  makes 
the  message  absolutely  safe  from  detection.  We  will  try 
to  describe  it. 

Take  a  square  sheet  of  paper,  of  convenient  size,  say  a 
foot  square.  Divide  it  by  lines  drawn  at  right  angles,  into 


CALIFORNIA  SCHAP-BOOK. 


73 


five  hundred  and  seventy-six  squares,  twenty-six  each 
way  ;  in  the  upper  horizontal  row  write  the  alphabet  in  its 
natural  order,  one  letter  in  each  square  ;  in  the  second  hor 
izontal  row  write  the  alphabet,  beginning  with  B.  There 
will  then  be  one  square  left  at  the  end  of  this  row,  into  this 
put  A.  Fill  the  third  row  by  beginning  with  C,  and  writ 
ing  A  arid  B  after  Z  at  the  end.  So  on,  until  the  whole 
sheet  is  filled. 

When  completed,  the  table,  if  correct,  will  present  this 
appearance:  In  the  upper  horizontal  row  the  alphabet  in 
its  natural  order  from  left  to  right ;  in  the  left  hand  vertical 
row,  the  same  from  top  to  bottom  ;  and  the  diagonal,  from 
upper  right  to  lower  left  hand  corner,  will  be  a  line  of  Z' s. 

THE   CRYPTOGRAPH. 


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Y     , 

Each  party  must  have  one  of  these  tables.  A  key- word 
must  also  be  agreed  upon,  which  may  be  any  word  in  the 
English  language,  or  from  any  other  language,  if  it  can  be 
represented  by  English  letters,  or,  indeed,  it  may  even  be  a 
combination  of  letters  which  spells  nothing. 


74  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

Now,  to  send  a  message,  first  we  write  the  message  in 
plain  English.  Over  it  we  write  the  key-word,  letter  over 
letter,  repeating  it  as  many  times  as  it  is  necessary  to  cover 
the  message.  Take  a  simple  case  as  an  illustration.  We 
suppose  the  key-word  to  be  "Grant,"  and  the  message, 
uWe  have  five  days'  provisions."  It  should  be  placed 

thus  : 

G  r   antg  rant    gran   tgrantgran 
We   have   five    days   p  r  o  v  i  $  i  o n  s. 

Now  find,  in  the  upper  horizontal  row  of  the  table,  the 
first  letter  of  the  key- word,  G,  and  in  the  left  hand  vertical 
column  the  first  letter  of  the  message,  AY.  Run  a  line 
straight  down  from  G,  and  one  to  the  right  from  W,  and  in 
the  angle  where  the  two  lines  meet  will  be  found  the  letter 
which  must  be  written  as  the  first  letter  of  the  cipher. 
With  the  second  letter  of  the  key-word,  R,  and  the  second 
letter  of  the  message,  E,  find  in  the  same  way  the  second 
letter  of  the  cipher. 

The  correspondent  who  receives  the  cipher,  goes  to  work 
to  translate  it  thus  :  He  first  writes  over  it  the  key -word, 
letter  over  letter,  repeating  it  as  often  as  necessary.  Then 
finding  in  the  upper  row  of  his  table  the  first  letter  of  the 
key -word,  he  passes  his  pencil  directly  down  until  he 
comes  to  the  first  letter  of  the  cipher  ;  the  letter  opposite 
to  it  in  the  left  vertical  column  is  the  first  letter  of  the 
translation.  Each  of  the  succeeding  letters  is  found  in  a 
similar  way. 

A  third  party,  into  whose  hands  such  a  cipher  might 
fall,  could  not  read  it,  though  he  possessed  a  copy  of  the 
table,  and  knew  how  to  use  it,  unless  he  knew  the  key- word. 
The  chance  of  his  guessing  this  is  only  one  in  millions. 
And  there  is  no  such  thing  as  interpreting  it  by  any  other 
method,  because  there  are  no  repetitions,  and  hence  all 
comparison  is  at  fault.  That  is  to  say,  in  the  same  cipher, 
in  one  place  a  letter,  as  for  instance  C,  may  stand  for  one 
letter  in  the  translation,  and  in  another  place  C  may  stand 
for  quite  a  different  letter.  This  is  the  only  kind  of  cryp 
tograph  we  have  ever  seen  which  is  absolutely  safe. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  75 


OX    A    DRIED    "WILD-FLOWER. 


In  an  old  School-Book. 


RELIC  of  early  days  !     My  casual  hand 

Hath  made  discovery  of  thy  long  retreat, 

As  carelessly  I  turned  the  time-worn  page, 

Unconscious  of  its  import ;  for  ray  thoughts 

Were  idly  roving — not  on  learned  lore, 

Or  marked  and  measured  task.     I  look  on  thee, 

Poor  withered  thing  !  and  memory's  current  flows 

Back,  back,  upon  the  past.     Shriveled  and  sear 

Is  all  thine  aspect  now,  pris'ner  of  years ! 

Yet  hath  it  woke  remembrance  of  bright  days 

And  sunny  scenes  of  nature,  trodden  oft 

By  my  feet  in  childhood ;  it  hath  woke 

The  echoes  of  sweet  voices  in  my  heart — 

I  see  again  the  light  of  happy  eyes — 

I  mingle  with  the  early  loved,  and  tread 

With  them  familiar  pathways.     Where,  oh,  where 

Hast  thou  been  gathered  ?     Was't  in  the  shady  walk 

Far  in  the  woodlands,  where  the  beech-trees  stretch 

Their  long  embracing  branches,  forming  there 

A  cool  continuous  arbor  ?     Grewest  thou 

Beside  that  stately  stem,  whose  graven  bark 

Tells  of  its  frequent  loiterers  ?     Or  didst 

Thou  spring  from  some  small  cleft  upon  the  rock 

That  venturous  steps  were  needed  to  attain  ? 

Wert  thou  the  spoil  of  some  loved  playmate's  hand  ? 

Or  did  mine  own  thus  bind  and  prison  thee 

In  bondage  grim  and  fast  ?  so  shrunk,  so  sear 

Is  all  thine  aspect  now !     Yet  can  I  trace 

In  its  wan  lineaments  the  form  of  grace, 

And  can  imagine  the  bright  sapphire  hue 

Of  each  small  petal,  when  the  calyx  burst, 

And  gave  its  incense  to  the  morning  air. 

How  many  a  time  hath  Spring  awoke  the  woods, 

And  Summer  to  the  blue  perpetual  skies 

Unfolded  all  her  flowers ;  how  many  a  time 

Hath  morn  succeeded  night,  the  sunbeam  waned, 

And  the  cool  air  condensed  itself  in  dew, 


76  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Since  thou,  their  nursling,  in  thy  beauty  blooming 
Wert  here  entombed,  to  fade  and  be  forgot ! 

Sleep  on,  poor  flow'ret ;  softest  showers  of  Spring, 

And  all  sweet  influences  of  nature,  now  were  vain 

Thy  colors  to  revive,  or  bring  to  thee 

The  loveliness  of  life  ;  as  vain,  alas, 

As  wishes  are  to  fill  the  longing  heart — 

As  vain  as  bitterest  tears  or  deepest  sighs 

To  bring  again  the  lost.     Ah,  could  we  turn 

And  search  the  storied  pages  of  the  heart, 

What  withered  flowers  were  found  !     Fair  buds  of  Hope 

Gathered  in  dewy  hours  of  life's  young  morn, 

And  garnered  in  their  freshness,  faded  now 

And  bleached  by  disappointment,  cherished  joys 

Shrunk  into  memories  that  awaken  tears — 

And  loves,  and  friendships,  once  expanded  flowers 

Roseate  and  beautiful — all,  all  are  there  ! 

Sleep  on,  poor  flow'ret ;  not  unmarked  from  hence 

Thy  place  of  sepulture  :  with  loving  hands, 

And  chastened  thought,  reluctantly  once  more 

I  close  the  book  upon  thy  faded  form. 


HISTORY    OF   THE    DISCOVERY    OF    GOLD    IN    CALIFORNIA. 


Queries,  submitted  as  to  the  man  who  discovered  the  present  Gold  Mines,  and  the  date  of  their 

Discovery. 


IOWA  HILL,  PLACER  COUNTY,  January.  8,  1856. 

R.  C.  E.  PICKETT  :  I  suppose  you  have  seen 
the  many  communications  which  have  flooded 
the  papers  lately  with  regard  to  the  question — 
Who  was  the  first  discoverer  of  the  present 
gold  mines  in  California?  You  were  one  of 
our  first  American  settlers,  and  also  the  publisher  of  a 
paper  which  has  been  referred  to  in  one  of  said  communica 
tions,  and  I  have  been  requested  by  Mr.  Marshall  to  make 
a  few  inquiries  of  you. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  77 

1.  Have  you  any  recollection   of  the   publication   of  an 
article  in  the  Oregon  Spectator  in  1846  or  '47,  which  gave  a 
" graphic  description"  of  the  mines  of  California.     [Such 
was  lately  said  to  be  the  fact  by  a  writer  in  the  California 
Chronicle^} 

2.  Do  you  recollect  that  an  agent  was  sent  from  Cali 
fornia  to  Oregon,  to  solicit  aid  for  the  immigrants  in  Cali 
fornia,    to  enable   them  to  make    a   successful  resistance 
against  any  attempt  to   drive  them   out  of  the  country? 

JSuch  has  been  said  to  be  the  fact.] 

3.  What  representations,  if  any,  did  that  agent  make  to 
the  Oregonians  to  induce  them  to  go  to  California  \    Did  he 
not  tell  a  good  story,  based  probably  upon  the  old  Spanish 
report  of  mines  existing  in  Southern  California  ?     And  is 
not  this  the  whole  sum  and  substance  of  what  has  been 
referred  to,  to  prove  that  the  mines  were  known  long  before 
the  time  at  which  Mr.  Marshall  claims  to  have  discovered 
the  gold  2 

4.  Do  you  not  know  that  there  was  no  mine  worked  for 
gold  in  Upper  California,  so  far  as  the  American  public  had 
any  knowledge  of  it,  before  Marshall' s  discovery  ? 

Please  reply  to  the  above  as  early  as  your  convenience 
will  permit,  and  oblige 

S.  G.  HIGGINS. 


REPLY    OP    MR.    PICKETT. 

AUBURN,  January  20,   1856. 

(DITORS  CHRONICLE:  About  ten  days  since, 
I  saw  in  a  copy  of  the  Weekly  Chronicle,  a 
communication  on  the  subject  of  early  gold 
discoveries  in  California,  signed  UN."  The 
writer  called  upon  ex-Governor  Burnett,  Gov 
ernor  Curry,  of  Oregon,  and  myself,  to  indorse  certain  state 
ments  of  his,  to  the  effect  that  the  existence  of  gold  through 
out  this  State,  was  well  known  prior  to  the  period  of  its 
discovery  as  claimed  by  Marshall.  The  perusal  of  various 
newspapers,  editorials  and  communications,  which  appeared 


78  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

during  the  previous  month,  written  apparently  to  rob  Mar 
shall  of  the  honor  of  his  discovery,  had  incited  me  to  write 
to  you,  but  I  was  prevented  from  doing  so  by  business 
affairs,  up  to  the  present  time.  At  the  request  of  your 
selves,  of  your  correspondent  UN,"  and  of  Mr.  S.  G.  Hig- 
gins,  whose  letter  accompanies  this,  I  now  write. 

To  reply  specifically  to,  and  refute  the  many  mis-state 
ments  about  the  early  gold  discoveries  in  California,  which 
have  frequently  met  my  eye  of  late,  is  not  my  intention. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  that  even  the  editor  of  the  Coloma  paper, 
where  the  first  piece  of  gold  was  picked  up,  has,  through 
misrepresentations,  been  induced  to  publish  articles  deny 
ing  to  Marshall  the  exclusive  honor  of  being  the  first  dis 
coverer. 

In  answering  Marshall's  first  query,  which  contains  the 
substance  of  your  request  also,  I  would  state,  that  no  such 
information  was  published  in  the  "Oregon  Spectator" 
during  the  years  1846-7. 

During  1847,  and  particularly  in  the  fall  of  that  year, 
there  was  quite  an  excitement  in  San  Francisco  and  San 
Jose,  on  the  subject  of  mineral  discoveries.  But  this  was 
mostly  in  reference  to  quicksilver  and  silver  mines,  which 
were  reported  to  be  rich  and  numerous  in  the  hills  and 
mountains  bounding  both  sides  of  the  valley  of  San  Jose. 

Toward  winter  this  excitement  subsided — all  the  silver 
mines  having  proved  to  be  humbugs,  and  the  various  quick 
silver  mines  having  been  thinned  out,  to  the  one  then  and 
now  wrought  by  Bolton,  Barron  &  Co.,  the  New  Almaden. 

That  the  Oregon  paper  may,  sometime  in  the  year  1847, 
have  published  some  speculations  and  rumors  about  the 
discovery  of  the  precious  metals  in  California,  based  upon 
such  facts  as  are  stated  above,  I  shall  not  pretend  to  ques 
tion. 

In  reply  to  the  second  query,  I  have  to  say  that  I  have 
no  knowledge  that  any  agent  was  sent  to  Oregon  to  solicit  aid, 
though  such  threats  were  made  by  the  native  Californians, 
and  General  Castro  was  actually  making  preparations  to 
carry  them  into  effect.  Such  a  request  was  carried  from  the 
Americans  in  California  by  the  immigrants,  who  went  up 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


79 


to  Oregon  in  the  spring  of  1846,  to  come  down  and  give  a 
helping  hand,  when  they  not  only  intended  to  resist  the 
attempt  to  expel  them,  but  to  start  a  revolution  and  take 
possession  of  the  Government.  The  Bear  Flag  Revolution 
soon  after  proved  the  earnestness  of  this  threat. 

That  the  persons  going  from  here  to  Oregon  in  1846  told 
of  the  existence  of  gold  in  the  land  they  had  left,  is  alto 
gether  probable,  since  such  fact  was  known  ever  since  the 
first  advent  and  settlement  of  the  country  by  the  Spanish 
race. 


PLACER  MINING.— Miners  shovelinsr  earth,  conf.tlnfng  poM  dust,  into  a  flume— the  earth 
is  washed  away  and  tlie  gold  settles  to  tho  bottom. 

In  1S42  I  met  with  men  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  who  had 
been  here,  and  who  told  me  the-  same  thing.  They  were 
not  the  first  to  give  such  information,  since  I  had  read  the 
same  when  a  boy. 

The  first  hide  drogers  and  other  traders  who  visited  this 
coast,  even  as  long  ago  as  the  last  century,  obtained  small 
quantities  of  gold  dust,  washed  from  the  earth  in  the  south- 


80  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

ern  part  of  the  State.  The  amount  collected,  however,  was 
never  large,  as  the  way  in  which  it  was  kept  and  carried 
for  barter  into  market  will  go  to  prove.  This  was  in  goose 
quills,  the  same  in  which  the  tribute,  or  taxes,  was  paid  to 
the  old  Aztec  monarchs. 

All  this,  however,  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  great 
modern  discovery  of  the  "stuff"  by  Marshall,  about  the 
first  of  February,  1848.  That  the  residents  of  California 
themselves  knew  not,  nor  believed  in  the  existence,  of 
these  rich  auriferous  deposits,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  for 
weeks  after  the  report  of  such  discoveries  had  widely  spread, 
and  not  until  various  individuals  had  brought  down  the 
dust  in  considerable  quantities,  and  shown  it  to  all  in 
quirers,  could  the  general  incredulity  be  overcome.  The 
month  of  May  arrived  before  public  confidence  in  the  rich 
ness  of  the  mines  was  fully  established,  and  people  thought 
it  would  pay  to  visit  them. 

This  is  not  the  first  effort  which  has  been  made  to  rob 
Marshall  of  his  priority  of  discovery.  Some  four  or  five 
years  ago  the  papers  in  California,  as  well  as  a  portion  of 
those  East,  pretended  to  prove  that  Fremont  made  the  dis 
covery  on  his  first  visit  here,  in  1844— that  he  kept  the 
matter  secret  for  the  purpose  of  making  arrangements  to 
enrich  himself  first,  and  also  that  Mexico  might  not  be  in 
duced  to  demand  too  large  a  price  from  Uncle  Sam  for  the 
country.  The  early  purchase  of  the  Mariposa  claim,  as 
alleged,  is  said  to  furnish  strong  evidence  of  his  knowledge 
of  its  mineral  wealth. 

As  evidence  to  the  contrary,  however,  I  happen  to  recol 
lect  that  in  the  fall  of  1847,  Colonel  Fremont,  or  rather  his 
agent  for  him,  was  contending  that  the  Mariposa  grant  did 
not  include  any  of  the  Sierra  mountains  and  hills,  but  was 
all,  or  nearly  all,  bottom  lands,  and  so  he  meant  to  survey 
and  hold  it. 

Another  set  of  antiquarians  have  attempted  to  set  Mar 
shall  down  as  merely  a  re-discoverer,  by  asserting  that 
California  is  the  veritable  Ophir  from  whence  that  old  Turk, 
of  whom  we  read  in  the  Bible,  King  Solomon,  got  the  gold 
with  which  he  ornamented  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem,  and 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  81 

adorned  the  numerous  mistresses  of  his  harem.  In  this 
assertion  these  learned  men,  however,  go  farther  back  than 
my  observation  and  experience,  and  I  shall  not  argue 
against  them  on  this  point. 

Whilst  encamped  on  the  banks  of  the  Klamath  River  on 
the  4th  of  July,  1846,  the  mineralogical  character  of  the 
country  was  much  commented  upon  by  some  of  a  company 
in  which  I  was  one.  The  remark  was  made  that  it  ought  to 
be  rich  in  minerals,  since,  j  udging  from  its  barren  and  des 
olate  appearance,  it  could  produce  nothing  else.  Some 
stones  were  brought  me  by  one  of  the  party,  indicating  the 
existence  of  copper  and  iron.  I  jotted  this  down  in  my 
notes  of  travel,  and  remarked,  in  addition,  as  my  journal 
will  now  prove,  that  I  had  no  doubt  that  gold  in  abundance 
would  be  found  in  the  course  of  a  few"  years  in  that  region. 
This  prophecy  has  been  fulfilled.  Now,  with  far  more 
truth  and  plausibility  than  some  others  who  seek  to  deny  to 
Marshall  the  fame  of  his  discovery,  might  I  claim  upon 
these  grounds  that  I  had  first  pointed  out  and  declared 
publicly  the  existence  of  gold  in  California. 

There  is  a  fact  connected  with  this  metal,  which  is,  though 
generally  overlooked,  but,  if  kept  in  mind,  would  serve  to 
correct  the  erroneous  impression  which  many  have  relative 
to  the  traditional  stories  about  old  discoveries  of  it  in  Cali 
fornia  as  well  as  other  countries— and  that  is,  that  gold  is 
the  most  universally  diffused  of  all  metals,  there  being  few 
streams  upon  the  globe  flowing  from  mountains  or  hills  (and 
nearly  all  rivers  or  streams  take  their  rise  in  such)  the  sands 
of  which  do  not  contain  particles  of  gold.  It  is  found,  be 
sides,  combined  with  various  other  metals,  so  that  in  most 
places,  where  thoroughly  searched,  gold  in  certain  quanti 
ties  has  been  obtained,  and  become  the  origin  of  many  old 
traditional  stories  of  discoveries  of  this  mineral. 

This  communication  is  already  sufficiently  lengthened,  or 
I  might  else  give  you  many  interesting  incidents  connected 
with  the  reopening  and  re-working  of  Solomon's  mines  in 
the  year  1848.  This  I  may  shortly  do  in  another  chapter, 
should  I  find  this  prove  of  sufficient  interest  to  your  readers 
to  warrant  it.  C.  E.  PICKETT. 


82  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


COMMENTS    OF    T.    O.    LARKIN. 


CCOMPANYING  the  letter  of  Mr.  Pickett, 
on  the  previous  page,  was  a  note,  requesting 
us  to  inquire  of  Thomas  O.  Larkin,  Esq.,  for 
merly  U.  S.  Consul  at  Monterey,  whether  the 
statements  in  the  letter  were  not  correct, 
according  to  his  recollection.  Mr.  Larkin,  whose  authority 
is  excellent,  as  well  on  account  of  his  opportunities  to  gain 
information,  as  of  his  intelligence,  furnished  us  with  a 
few  notes,  from  which  we  compile  the  following  : — 

Previous  to  the  year  1840,  some  Sonorians  discovered  a 
gold  placer  on  the  rancho  of  Don  Ygnacio  Valle,  about 
twenty  miles  northeast  of  the  ex-Mission  of  San  Fernando. 
Many  people  worked  at  this  placer  up  to  the  year  1846, 
making  from  two  to  three  dollars  a  day.  They  never  had 
much  water,  and  they  usually  obtained  the  precious  metal, 
by  throwing  the  sand  up  with  a  cora  (an  Indian  basket), 
and  allowing  the  wind  to  blow  away  the  lighter  matter.  The 
gold  was  frequently  preserved  in  quills,  and  sold  to  the 
traders  in  Los  Angeles.  On  one  occasion,  two  hundred 
ounces  [$3,600]  of  this  gold  was  shipped  to  Appleton  & 
Co.,  of  Boston,  by  an  agent,  the  supercargo  of  one  of  their 
ships. 

In  the  spring  of  1846,  Don  Jose  Castro,  Commandante 
General  (Supreme  Military  Officer)  of  Upper  California, 
though  residing  in  Monterey,  collected  men  at  the  ex-Mis 
sion  of  Santa  Clara,  for  the  purpose  of  deposing  Pio  Pico, 
the  Gefe  Politico  (Political  Chief  or  Governor)  of  the  terri 
tory.  Pico  was  then  residing  at  Los  Angeles.  During  this 
time  the  Americans,  on  the  Sacramento  were  alarmed  by  a 
report  that  Castro  and  Alvarado  had  instigated  the  Indians 
to  burn  their  wheat-fields,  and  would  soon  march  with  a 
large  body  of  men  for  the  upper  country  to  drive  all  the 
Americans  out  of  California.  Mr.  Larkin  was  in  Santa  Clara 
several  times  during  the  collection  of  these  men  by  Castro, 
and  in  his  capacity  of  U.  S.  Consul  informed  Castro  and 
Alvarado  of  the  rumors,  represented  the  prejudicial  effects 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  83 

of  such  reports  on  the  public  mind  and  on  their  own  repu 
tations,  and  demanded  information.  Both  Castro  and  Alva- 
rado  emphatically  denied  the  report  respecting  the  Indians, 
and  disclaimed  any  intention  of  going  to  the  Sacramento 
River  for  any  purpose.  As  the  consul  was  fully  informed 
of  the  object  in  the  collection  of  men  at  Santa  Clara,  he 
believed  the  assertions  of  Castro  and  Alvarado.  Pio  Pico 
was  north  of  Santa  Barbara,  on  his  march  to  put  down 
Castro,  when  he  heard  that  the  American  flag  had  been 
hoisted  over  Upper  California  by  Commodore  Sloat,  and  he 
turned  back.  About  this  time  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
American  Consul  which  is  published  in  the  Annals  of  San 
Francisco.  Pico  objected  to  the  possession  of  so  much 
land  on  the  Sacramento  River  by  foreigners,  but  Castro 
wished  them  to  have  it. 

The  Mariposa  ranch  came  into  the  possession  of  Fremont 
accidentally.  Previous  to  the  gold  discovery  he  had  re 
quested  Mr.  Larkin  to  buy  a  ranch  for  him,  but  had  pro 
vided  no  money,  and  had  selected  no  land.  Some  time 
after  this,  and  before  the  gold  was  discovered,  Governor 
Alvarado  offered  the  Mariposa  ranch  to  Larkin  for  $3,000. 
The  latter  made  the  purchase,  really  for  Fremont,  but 
intending,  if  the  latter  objected,  to  keep  the  place  for  him 
self.  When  they  met,  Fremont  agreed  to  take  the  ranch, 
but  expressed  a  slight  regret  that  Larkin  had  not  bought  a 
ranch  on  the  coast. — California  Chronicle,  January  28, 
1856. 


THE    FIRST    GOLD    MINING    IN    CALIFORNIA 


ALTHOUGH  the  fact  has  heretofore  been  pub 
lished,  it  is  not  generally  known,  that  gold 
placers  were  worked  in  California  long  before 
the  discovery  at  Sutter's  mill  in  1848.  Docu 
mentary  evidence  of  this  interesting  fact  has 
just  been  published  by  the  Alia,  in  the  shape  of  a  letter 
addressed  by  Abel  Stearns,  of  Los  Angeles,  to  Louis  R. 


84:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Lull,  Secretary  of  the  Society  of  Pioneers.  Mr.  Stearns, 
who  came  to  California,  from  Mexico,  in  1829 — nearly  forty 
years  ago — says  that  on  the  22d  of  November,  1842,  he  sent 
by  Alfred  Robinson  (who  returned  from  California  to  the 
States  by  way  of  Mexico),  twenty  ounces  California  weight 
(eighteen  and  three-fourths  ounces  Mint  weight)  of  placer 
gold,  to  be  forwarded  by  him  to  the  United  States  Mint  at 
Philadelphia.  The  Mint  assay  was  returned  August  6, 
1843.  The  gold  was  taken  from  placers  first  discovered  in 
March,  1842,  by  Francisco  Lopez,  a  native  Californian,  at 
San  Francisquito,  about  thirty-five  miles  northwest  from 
Los  Angeles.  Lopez,  while  resting  in  the  shade  with  some 
companions  during  a  hunt  for  stray  horses,  dug  up  some 
wild  onions  with  his  sheath- knife,  and  in  the  dirt  discovered 
a  piece  of  gold.  Searching  further  he  found  more  pieces, 
and  on  returning  to  town  announced  his  discovery.  A  few 
persons,  mostly  Sonorians,  who  were  accustomed  to  placer 
mining  in  Mexico,  worked  in  the  San  Francisquito  placer 
from  this  time  until  the  latter  part  of  1846,  when  the  war 
with  the  United  States  disturbed  the  country,  taking  out 
$6,000  to  $8,000  per  annum.  The  United  States  Mint  Certi 
ficate,  for  the  assay  made  for  Mr.  Stearns  in  1843,  is  now  in 
the  archives  of  the  Society  of  Pioneers.  There  have  been 
reports  that  gold  was  dug  in  this  State  as  early  as  1834,  but 
these  arose  from  the  fact  that  shipments  were  made  of  bul 
lion  received  from  New  Mexico  and  Sonora.  The  existence 
of  gold  in  California  had  doubtless  been  known  in  a  limited 
way,  but  the  first  known  working  of  a  mine  is  that  recorded 
above.—  S.  F.  Bulletin,  May,  1868. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  85 

APOSTROPHE    TO    WATER. 

OME  time  since  we  alluded  to  the  famous  apos 
trophe  to  water  which  John  B.  Gough,  the  elo 
quent  lecturer  on  temperance,  has  repeated  to 
electrified  thousands  in  America  and  England. 
Mr.  Gough  never  informed  an  audience  that  he 
was  no^  the  author  of  the  apostrophe,  and  for  years  he  has 
enjoyed  the  undisputed  credit  of  it.  We  stated  that  it 
originated  with  Paul  Denton,  an  itinerant  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  Texas,  and  that  it  was  delivered  at  a  barbecue 
which  Denton  had  prepared,  and  to  which  he  invited  the 
Rangers.  It  has  been  years  since  we  read  the  incident,  and 
we  are  delighted  to  find  it  in  an  exchange,  credited  to  a 
Texas  paper.  We  feel  sure  our  readers  will  be  equally  de 
lighted  with  its  perusal  :— 

The  smoking  viands  were  arranged  on  the  tables  by  scores 
of  slaves,  and  the  throng  prepared  to  commence  the  sump 
tuous  meal,  when  a  voice  pealed  from  the  pulpit,  loud  as 
the  blast  of  a  trumpet  in  battle,  "  Stay,  ladies  and  gentle 
men,  till  the  giver  of  the  barbecue  asks  God's  blessing!" 
Every  heart  thrilled,  every  eye  was  directed  to  the  speaker, 
and  a  whisperless  silence  ensued,  for  all  alike  were  struck 
by  his  remarkable  appearance.  He  was  almost  a  giant  in 
stature,  though  scarcely  thirty  years  of  age.  His  hair,  dark 
as  the  raven's  wing,  flowed  down  his  immense  shoulders  in 
masses  of  natural  ringlets  ;  his  eyes,  black  as  midnight, 
beamed  like  stars  over  a  face  pale  as  Parian  marble — calm, 
passionless,  spiritual,  and  wearing  a  singular,  indefinable 
expression.  The  heterogeneous  crowd — hunters,  gamblers, 
and  homicides — gazed  in  mute  astonishment.  The  minister 
prayed,  but  it  sounded  like  no  other  prayer  ever  addressed 
to  the  Throne  of  Grace.  It  was  the  cry  of  a  naked  soul, 
and  that  soul  a  beggar  for  the  bread  and  the  water  of  heav 
enly  life. 

He  ceased,  and  not  till  then  did  I  become  conscious  of 
weeping.  I  looked  around  through  my  tears  and  saw  hun 
dreds  of  faces  wet  as  with  rain. 


86  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

"Now,  my  friends,"  said  the  missionary,  "partake  of 
God1  s  gifts  at  the  table,  and  then  come  and  sit  down  and  lis 
ten  to  his  Gospel." 

It  would  be  impossible  to  describe  the  sweet  tone  of  kind 
ness  in  which  these  simple  words  were  uttered,  that  made 
Mm  on  the  instant  five  hundred  friends.  One  heart,  how 
ever,  in  the  assembly,  was  maddened  at  the  evidence  of  the 
preacher's  wonderful  power. 

Colonel  Watt  Foreman  exclaimed,  in  a  sneering  voice, 
"Mr.  Denton,  your  reverence  has  lied.  You  promised  us 
not  only  a  good  barbecue,  but  better  liquor.  Where  is  the 
liquor?" 

"  There  !"  answered  the  missionary,  in  tones  of  thunder, 
and  pointing  his  motionless  linger  at  the  matchless  Double 
Spring  gushing  up  in  two  strong  columns,  with  a  shout  like 
a  shout  of  joy,  from  the  bosom  of  the  earth.  "  There  !"  he 
repeated,  with  a  look  terrible  as  lightning,  while  his  enemy 
actually  trembled  at  his  feet.  "There  is  the  liquor  which 
God,  the  Eternal,  brews  for  his  children — not  in  the  sim 
mering  still,  over  smoky  fires,  choked  with  poisonous  gases 
and  surrounded  with  the  stench  of  sickening  odors  and  rank 
corruption,  doth  your  Father  in  Heaven  prepare  the  precious 
essence  of  life,  the  pure  cold  water — but  in  the  green  glade 
and  grassy  dell,  where  the  red  deer  wanders  and  the  child 
loves  to  play,  there  God  himself  brews  it ;  and  down— down 
in  the  deep  valleys,  where  the  fountains  murmur  and  the 
rills  sing  ;  and  high  on  the  tall  mountain-tops,  where  the 
naked  granite  glitters  like  gold  in  the  sun — where  the  storm 
cloud  broods  and  the  thunder  tones  crash  ;  and  away  far  out 
on  the  wide,  wide  sea,  where  the  hurricane  howls  music, 
and  the  big  waves  roar  the  chorus,  i  sweeping  the  march  of 
God,'  there  he  brews  it,  that  beverage  of  life— health -giv 
ing  water.  And  everywhere  it  is  a  thing  of  beauty — gleam 
ing  in  the  dew-drop — singing  in  the  summer  rain — shining 
in  the  ice-gem,  till  the  trees  all  seem  turned  to  living  jewels 
— spreading  a  golden  veil  over  the  setting  sun,  or  a  white 
gauze  around  the  midnight  moon — sporting  in  the  cataract- 
sleeping  in  the  glacier — dancing  in  the  hail  shower — folding 
its  "bright  snow  curtains  softly  about  the  wintry  world— 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  87 

weaving  the  many-colored  iris,  that  seraph's  zone  of  the 
sky,  whose  roof  is  the  sunbeams  of  heaven,  all  checked 
over  with  celestial  flowers  by  the  mystic  hand  of  refraction. 
Still  always  it  is  beautiful — that  blessed  life-water.  No  poi 
son  bubbles  on  its  brink — its  foam  brings  not  madness — no 
blood  stains  its  liquid  glass — pale  widows  and  starving 
orphans  weep  not  burning  tears  in  its  clear  depths — no 
drunkard's  shrieking  ghost  from  the  grave  curses  it  in 
words  of  eternal  despair  !  Speak  out,  my  friends  ;  would 
you  exchange  it  for  the  demon's  drink — alcohol?" 

A  shout  like  the  roar  of  a  tempest  answered,   "No  !"  — 
Pitlsburg  Dispatch. 


THE    FIXAL    FATE    OF    THE    UNIVERSE. 

lF   two  bodies   were    placed   in   space,    without 
any  force  acting  upon  either  of  them  other  than 

their  own  gravity,  they  would  immediately  start 

toward    each  other,    and   would   rush   together. 

The  sun  and  planets,  which,  constitute  the  stel 
lar  system,  to  which  our  solar  system  belongs,  are  pre 
vented  from  rushing  together  into  one  mass  by  their  revolu 
tions  about  each  other.  The  revolutions  of  the  planets 
around  our  sun,  and  of  the  satellites  about  their  primaries, 
have  been  ascertained,  with  that  wonderful  precision  which 
is  the  just  pride  of  astronomical  science,  and  astronomers 
are  now  engaged  in  the  sublime  problem  of  unraveling  the 
revolutions  of  the  countless  suns  that  make  up  our  stellar 
system.  Already  the  cluster  of  the  Pleiades  is  indicated  as 
the  proximate  locality  of  the  center  around  which  our  sun,  • 
with  his  attendant  planets,  is  sweeping  his  vast  orbit ;  and 
it  is  suggested  that  this  is  probably  the  common  center  of 
the  orbits  of  all  the  suns  of  our  stellar  system. 

If  the  force  of  gravity  extends  across  the  inconceivable 
spaces  which  separate  the  several  stellar  systems  of  the 
universe,  these  systems  must  rush  together,  unless  they  are 
held  apart  by  revolutions  around  each  other. 


88  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

If  light  were  an  emanation,  as  held  by  Newton,  the  spaces 
between  the  solid  bodies  of  the  universe  might  be  absolutely 
empty ;  and,  in  that  case,  the  revolutions  of  the  bodies 
around  each  other  might  go  on  forever.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  light  is  a  vibration  in  a  subtle  fluid,  this  fluid  must  ob 
struct  the  motions  of  bodies  revolving  in  it,  and  they  must 
finally  come  together  in  one  mass.  The  experiment,  so 
ingeniously  devised  by  Arago,  and  carried  out  with  such 
honorable  regard  for  the  fame  of  its  designer  by  Messrs. 
Foucault,  Fizeau,  and  Breguet,  to  determine  whether  there 
is  a  difference  in  the  velocity  of  light  in  its  passage  through 
air  and  water,  has  demonstrated  that  light  is  a  vibration. 
It  follows  from  this  that,  as  far  as  light  extends,  space  is 
filled  with  a  material  fluid,  which  resists  the  motions  of 
bodies  revolving  in  it,  and  bodies  within  this  space  must 
gradually  wind  their  way  inward,  and  ultimately  come 
together  into  one  mass. 

The  moon  must  be  drawing  very  slowly  nearer  and  nearer 
to  the  earth,  and  the  two  bodies,  in  the  far  distant  future, 
will  come  together.  The  solid  crust  of  the  earth  will  be 
broken  up  by  the  shock,  an  immense  quantity  of  heat  will 
be  generated  by  the  destruction  of  the  moon' s  motion,  and 
the  two  bodies  will  fuse  together  into  one  molten  globe.  As 
the  new  and  enlarged  earth  is  cooled  upon  its  surface,  a 
second  series  of  geological  deposits  will  be  constituted,  ac 
companied,  perhaps,  by  strange  and  inconceivable  forms  of 
animal  and  vegetable  life. 

At  the  same  time,  the  earth  is  winding  its  way  inward 
toward  the  sun,  and  must  ultimately  fall,  an  inconsiderable 
pebble,  into  that  vast,  glowing  mass.  The  same  fate  awaits 
all  the  planets,  and  our  solar  system  must  one  day  be  but  a 
single  globe.  When  this  globe  is  cooled  to  the  right  tem 
perature,  it  may  be  covered  with  a  multitude  of  inhabitants, 
and  astronomers  may  arise  who  will  watch  its  revolutions 
among  the  associated  suns  of  our  stellar  system.  If  their 
knowledge  and  intellect  are  equal  to  the  science  of  our 
astronomers,  they  will  foresee  the  ultimate  coming  together 
of  all  these  suns  into  one  common  globe.  And  not  this 
only,  for  they  will  predict  the  final  coming  together  of  all 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  89 

the  stellar  systems  of  the  visible  universe  into  one  mass  of 
matter. 

When  this  mass  is  first  collected,  it  will  be  intensely  hot, 
from  the  destruction  of  motion  in  the  several  suns  and 
systems  of  suns  as  they  come  together.  The  heat  will  be 
radiated  outward  into  the  universe,  and  the  one  mass  of 
matter  will  be  gradually  cooled.  During  the  cooling,  there 
will  be  the  same  play  and  mutual  interchange  of  heat,  elec 
tricity,  light,  magnetism,  and  other  imponderable  forces  that 
there  is  now  upon  this  earth.  As  the  cooling  proceeds,  the 
action  of  these  forces  will  diminish  ;  when  977°  is  reached , 
light  will  cease,  and  darkness  will  fill  the  universe.  As 
each  vibration  of  heat  leaves  the  surface  of  the  material 
mass,  it  will  expand  outward,  at  the  rate  of  192,000  miles 
per  second,  in  all  directions,  in  the  form  of  a  swiftly  swell 
ing,  hollow  globe.  When  the  temperature  of  absolute  cold 
is  reached  (493.2°),  the  last  vibration  of  heat  will  leave  the 
mass  of  matter,  and  will  expand  outward  through  infinity 
of  space  and  time. 

Supposing,  however,  the  ethereal  fluid  which  fills  the 
visible  portion  of  the  universe  is  limited  in  extent,  so  that 
the  last  vibration  of  heat  will  reach  its  boundaries,  and 
cease,  what  then  becomes  of  the  force  of  the  universe,  and 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of  force  ? — Scientific 
American. 


THE    EYE    OF    THE    COMMAXDEK. 

A  Neio    Yearns  Legend  of  Spanish   California. 
\ 

•HE  year  of  Grace  1797  passed  away  on  the  coast 
of  California  in  a  southwesterly  gale.  The 
little  bay  of  San  Carlos,  albeit  sheltered  by  the 
headlands  of  the  blessed  Trinity,  was  rough 
and  turbulent ;  its'  foam  clung  quivering  to  the 
seaward  wall  of  the  Mission  garden  ;  the  air  was  filled  with 
flying  sand  and  spume,  and  as  the  Senor  Comandante, 
Hermenegildo  Salvatierra,  looked  from  the  deep  embrasured 
window  of  the  Presidio  guard-room,  he  felt  the  salt  breath 


TI7BRSITTJ 


90  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

of  the  distant  sea  buffet  a  color  into  his  smoke-dried  cheeks. 
The  Commander,  I  have  said,  was  gazing  thoughtfully 
from  the  window  of  the  guard-room.  He  may  have  been 
reviewing  the  events  of  the  year  now  about  to  pass  away. 
But,  like  the  garrison  at  the  Presidio,  there  was  little  to 
review  ;  the  year,  like  its  predecessor,  had  been  uneventful 
— the  days  had  slipped  by  in  a  delicious  monotony  of  simple 
duties — unbroken  by  incident  or  interruption.  The  regu 
larly  recurring  feasts  and  Saints'  days,  the  half-yearly 
courier  from  San  Diego,  the  rare  transport  ship,  and  rarer 
foreign  vessel,  were  the  mere  details  of  his  patriarchal  life. 
If  there  was  no  achievement,  there  was  certainly  no  failure. 
Abundant  harvests  and  patient  industry  amply  supplied 
the  wants  of  Presidio  and  Mission.  Isolated  from  the 
family  of  nations,  the  wars  which  shook  the  world  con 
cerned  them  not  so  much  as  the  last  earthquake  ;  the 
struggle  that  emancipated  their  sister  colonies  on  the  other 
side  of  the  continent  to  them  had  no  suggest! veness.  In 
short,  it  was  that  glorious  Indian  summer  of  California!! 
history,  around  which  so  much  poetical  haze  still  lingers— 
that  bland,  indolent  autumn  of  Spanish  rule,  so  soon  to  be 
followed  by  the  wintry  storms  of  Mexican  independence, 
and  the  reviving  spring  of  American  conquest. 

The  Commander  turned  from  the  window,  and  walked 
toward  the  fire  that  burned  brightly  on  the  deep  oven-like 
hearth.  A  pile  of  copy-books,  the  work  of  the  Presidio 
school,  lay  on  the  table.  As  he  turned  over  the  leaves,  with 
a  paternal  interest,  and  surveyed  the  fair,  round  Scripture 
text—the  first  pious  pot-hooks  of  the  pupils  of  San  Carlos— 
an  audible  commentary  fell  from  his  lips  :— "  '  Abimelech 
took  her  from  Abraham'— ah,  little  one,  excellent !—' Jacob 
sent  to  see  his  brother  '—body  of  Christ !  that  up-stroke  of 
thine,  Pachita,  is  marvelous  ;  the  Governor  shall  see  it !" 
A  film  of  honest  pride  dimmed  the  Commander's  left  eye— 
the  right,  alas  !  twenty  years  before  had  been  sealed  by  an 
Indian  arrow.  He  rubbed  it  softly  with  the  sleeve  of  his 
leather  jacket,  and  continued  :— "'<  The  Ishmaelites  having 
arrived '  — ' ' 

He  stopped,  for  there  was  a  step  in  the  court-yard,  a  foot 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  91 

upon  the  threshold,  and  a  stranger  entered.  With  the  in 
stinct  of  an  old  soldier,  the  Commander,  after  one  glance  at 
the  intruder,  turned  quickly  toward  the  wall,  where  his 
trusty  Toledo  hung,  or  should  have  been  hanging.  But  it 
was  not  there  ;  and,  as  the  Commander  recalled  that  the  last 
time  he  had  seen  that  weapon  it  was  "being  ridden  up  and 
down  the  gallery  "by  Pepito,  the  infant  son  of  Bautista,  the 
tortilla  maker,  he  blushed,  and  then  contented  himself  with 
frowning  upon  the  intruder. 

But  the  stranger's  air,  though  irreverent,  was  decidedly 
peaceful.  He  was  unarmed,  and  wore  the  ordinary  cape  of 
tarpaulin  and  sea-boots  of  a  mariner.  Except  a  villainous 
smell  of  cod-fish,  there  was  little  about  him  that  was 
peculiar. 

His  name,  as  he  informed  the  Commander,  in  Spanish, 
that  was  more  fluent  than  elegant  or  precise — his  name  was 
Peleg  Scudder  He  was  master  of  the  schooner  General 
Court,  of  the  port  of  Salem,  in  Massachusetts,  on  a  trading 
voyage  to  the  South  Seas,  but  now  driven  by  stress  of 
weather  into  the  bay  of  San  Carlos.  He  begged  permission 
to  ride  out  the  gale  under  the  headlands  of  the  blessed 
Trinity,  and  no  more.  Water  he  did  not  need,  having 
taken  in  a  supply  at  Bodega.  He  knew  the  strict  surveil 
lance  of  the  Spanish  port  regulations  in  regard  to  foreign 
vessels,  and  would  do  nothing  against  the  severe  discipline 
and  good  order  of  the  settlement.  There  was  a  slight  tinge 
of  sarcasm  in  his  tone,  as  he  glanced  toward  the  desolate 
parade  ground  of  the  Presidio  and  the  open  unguarded  gate. 
The  fact  was,  that  the  sentry,  Felipe  Gomez,  had  discreetly 
retired  to  shelter  at  the  beginning  of  the  storm,  and  was 
then  sound  asleep  in  the  corridor. 

The  Commander  hesitated.  The  port  regulations  were 
severe,  but  he  was  accustomed  to  exercise  individual  author 
ity,  and  beyond  an  old  order,  issued  ten  years  before,  regard 
ing  the  American  ship  Columbia,  there  was  no  precedent  to 
guide  him.  The  storm  was  severe,  and  a  sentiment  of 
humanity  urged  him  to  grant  the  stranger' s  request.  It  is 
but  just  to  the  Commander  to  say  that  his  inability  to  en 
force  a  refusal  did  not  weigh  with  his  decision.  He  would 


92  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

have  denied,  with  equal  disregard  of  consequences,  that 
right  to  a  seventy-four  gun  ship  which  he  now  yielded  so 
gracefully  to  this  Yankee  trading  schooner.  He  stipulated 
only  that  there  should  be  no  communication  between  the 
ship  and  shore.  "For  yourself,  Senor  Captain,"  he  con 
tinued,  "  accept  my  hospitality.  The  fort  is  yours  as  long 
as  you  shall  grace  it  with  your  distinguished  presence;" 
and,  with  old-fashioned  courtesy,  he  made  the  semblance 
of  withdrawing  from  the  guard-room. 

Master  Peleg  Sc udder  smiled  as  he  thought  of  the  half- 
dismantled  fort,  the  two  moldy  brass  cannon,  cast  in  Man 
ila  a  century  previous,  and  the  shiftless  garrison.  A  wild 
thought  of  accepting  the  Commander's  offer  literally— con 
ceived  in  the  reckless  spirit  of  a  man  who  never  let  slip  an 
offer  for  trade — for  a  moment  filled  Ids  brain,  but  a  timely 
reflection  of  the  commercial  unimportance  of  the  transaction 
checked  him.  He  only  took  a  capacious  quid  of  tobacco, 
as  the  Commander  gravely  drew  a  settle  before  the  lire,  and, 
in  honor  of  his  guest  untied  the  black  silk  handkerchief 
that  bound  his  grizzled  brows. 

What  passed  between  Salvatierra  and  his  guest  that  night, 
it  becomes  me  not,  as  a  grave  chronicler  of  the  salient  points 
of  history,  to  relate.  I  have  said  that  Master  Peleg  Scudder 
was  a  fluent  talker,  and  under  the  influence  of  divers  strong 
waters  furnished  by  his  host  he  became  still  more  loqua 
cious.  And  think  of  a  man  with  a  twenty  years'  budget  of 
gossip  !  The  Commander  learned  for  the  first  time  how 
Great  Britain  lost  her  colonies  ;  of  the  French  Revolution  ; 
of  the  Great  Napoleon,  whose  achievements  perhaps  Peleg 
colored  more  highly  than  the  Commander's  superiors  would 
have  liked.  And  when  Peleg  turned  questioner,  the  Com 
mander  was  at  his  mercy.  He  gradually  made  himself  mas 
ter  of  the  gossip  of  the  Mission  and  Presidio,  the  "small 
beer"  chronicles  of  that  pastoral  age,  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen,  the  Presidio  schools,  and  even  asked  the  Com 
mander  how  he  had  lost  his  eye  !  It  is  said  that  at  this  point 
of  the  conversation  Master  Peleg  produced  from  about  his 
person  divers  small  trinkets,  kick-shaws  and  new-fangled 
trifles,  and  even  forced  some  of  them  upon  his  host.  It  is 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  93 

further  alleged  that  under  the  malign  influence  of  Peleg,  and 
several  glasses  of  aguadientc,  the  Commander  lost  some 
what  of  his  decorum  and  behaved  in  a  manner  unseemly  for 
one  in  his  position,  reciting  high-flown  Spanish  poetry,  and 
even  piping  in  a  thin,  high  voice,  divers  madrigals  and 
heathen  canzonets  of  an  amorous  complexion — chiefly  in 
regard  to  a  "little  one"  who  was  his,  the  Commander's 
"  soul !"  These  allegations,  perhaps  unworthy  the  notice 
of  a  serious  chronicler,  should  be  received  with  great  cau 
tion,  and  are  introduced  here  as  simple  hearsay.  That  the 
Commander,  however,  took  a  handkerchief  and  attempted 
to  show  his  guest  the  mysteries  of  the  sembi-cuacua,  caper 
ing  in  an  agile  but  indecorous  manner  about  the  apartment, 
I  utterly  deny.  Enough  for  the  purposes  of  this  narrative, 
that  at  midnight  Peleg  assisted  his  host  to  bed  with  many 
protestations  of  undying  friendship,  and  then  as  the  gale 
had  abated,  took  his  leave  of  the  Presidio  and  hurried  aboard 
the  General  Court.  When  the  day  broke  the  ship  was 
gone. 

I  know  not  if  Peleg  kept  his  word  with  his  host.  It  is 
said  that  the  holy  Fathers  at  the  Mission  that  night  heard  a 
loud  chanting  in  the  plaza,  as  of  the  heathens  singing  psalms 
through  their  noses,  that  for  many  days  after,  an  odor  of 
salt  codfish  prevailed  in  the  settlement,  that  a  dozen  hard 
nutmegs  which  were  unfit  for  spice  or  seed,  were  found  in 
the  possession  of  the  wife  of  the  baker,  and  that  several 
bushels  of  shoe-pegs  which  bore  a  pleasing  resemblance  to 
oats,  but  were  quite  inadequate  to  the  purposes  of  proven 
der,  were  discovered  in  the  stable  of  the  blacksmith.  But 
when  the  reader  reflects  upon  the  sacredness  of  a  Yankee 
trader's  word,  the  stringent  discipline  of  the  Spanish  port 
regulations,  and  the  proverbial  indisposition  of  my  country 
men  to  impose  upon  the  confidence  of  a  simple  people,  he 
will  at  once  reject  this  part  of  the  story. 


A  roll  of  drums,  ushering  in  the  year  1798,  awoke  the 
Commander.     The  sun  was  shining  brightly  and  the  storm 


94  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

had  ceased.  He  sat  up  in  bed,  and  through  the  force  of 
habit  rubbed  his  left  eye.  As  the  remembrance  of  tlie  pre 
vious  night  came  back  to  him,  he  jumped  from  his  couch 
and  ran  to  the  window.  There  was  no  ship  in  the  bay.  A 
sudden  thought  seemed  to  strike  the  Commander,  and  he 
rubbed  both  of  his  eyes.  Not  content  with  this  he  con 
sulted  the  metallic  mirror  which  hung  beside  his  crucifix. 
There  was  no  mistake.  The  Commander  had  a  visible 
second  eye — a  right  one — as  good,  save  for  the  purposes  of 
vision,  as  the  left. 

Whatever  might  have  been  the  true  secret  of  this  trans 
formation,  but  one  opinion  prevailed  at  San  Carlos.  It  was 
one  of  those  rare  miracles  vouchsafed  a  pious  Catholic  com 
munity  as  an  evidence  to  the  heathen,  through  the  interces 
sion  of  the  blessed  San  Carlos  himself.  That  their  beloved 
Commander,  the  temporal  defender  of  the  Faith,  should  be 
the  recipient  of  this  miraculous  manifestation,  was  most  fit 
and  seemly.  The  Commander  himself  was  reticent ;  he 
could  not  tell  a  falsehood — he  dare  not  tell  the  truth.  After 
all,  if  the  good  folk  of  San  Carlos  believed  that  the  powers 
of  his  right  eye  were  actually  restored,  was  it  wise  and  dis 
creet  for  him  to  undeceive  them  ?  For  the  first  time  in  his 
life,  the  Commander  thought  of  policy  ;  for  the  first  time, 
he  quoted  that  text  which  has  been  the  lure  of  so  many 
well-meaning  but  easy  Christians,  of  being  "  all  things  to 
all  men."  Infelix  Hermenegildo  Salvatierra !  Through 
thy  foolish  pride  crept  the  arch-enemy  into  thy  soul; 
through  thy  weakness  fell  the  fair  fortunes  of  San  Carlos  ! 

For  by  degrees  an  ominous  whisper  crept  through  the 
little  settlement.  The  right  eye  of  the  Commander,  al 
though  miraculous,  seemed  to  exercise  a  baleful  effect  upon 
the  beholder.  No  one  could  look  at  it  without  winking. 
It  was  cold,  hard,  relentless  and  unflinching.  More  than 
that,  it  seemed  to  be  endowed  with  a  dreadful  prescience — 
a  faculty  of  seeing  through  and  into  the  inarticulate 
thoughts  of  those  it  looked  upon.  The  soldiers  of  the  gar 
rison  obeyed  the  eye  rather  than  the  voice  of  their  Com 
mander,  and  answered  his  glance  rather  than  his  lips  in 
questioning.  The  servants  could  not  evade  the  ever- watch- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  95 

ful,  but  cold  attention  that  seemed  to  pursue  them.  The 
children  of  the  Presidio  school  smirched  their  copy-books 
under  the  awful  supervision,  and  poor  Pachita,  the  prize 
pupil,  failed  utterly  in  that  marvelous  up-stroke  when  her 
patron  stood  beside  her.  Gradually  distrust,  suspicion, 
self-accusation,  and  timidity,  took  the  place  of  trust,  con 
fidence,  and  security  throughout  San  Carlos.  Wherever 
the  right  eye  of  the  Commander  fell,  a  shadow  fell  with  it. 

Nor  was  Salvatierra  entirely  free  from  the  baleful  influ 
ence  of  his  miraculous  acquisition.  Unconscious  of  its 
effect  upon  others,  he  only  saw  in  their  actions  evidence  of 
certain  things  that  the  crafty  Peleg  had  hinted  on  that 
eventful  New  Year' s  Eve.  His  most  trusty  retainers  stam 
mered,  blushed,  and  faltered  before  him.  Self-accusations, 
confessions  of  minor  faults  and  delinquencies,  or  extrava 
gant  excuses  and  apologies,  met  his  mildest  inquiries.  The 
very  children  that  he  loved — his  pet  pupil,  Pachita — seemed 
to  be  conscious  of  some  hidden  sin.  The  result  of  this  con 
stant  irritation  showed  itself  more  plainly.  For  the  first 
half  year,  the  Commander's  voice  and  eye  w^ere  at  variance. 
He  was  still  kind,  tender,  and  thoughtful  in  speech.  Grad 
ually,  however,  his  voice  took  upon  itself  the  hardness  of 
his  glance,  and  its  skeptical,  impassive  quality,  and  as  the 
year  again  neared  its  close,  it  was  plain  that  the  Com 
mander  had  fitted  himself  to  the  eye,  and  not  the  eye  to 
the  Commander. 

It  may  be  surmised  that  these  changes  did  not  escape  the 
watchful  solicitude  of  the  Fathers.  Indeed,  the  few  who 
were  first  to  ascribe  the  right  eye  of  Salvatierra  to  miracu 
lous  origin,  and  the  special  grace  of  the  blessed  San  Carlos, 
now  talked  openly  of  witchcraft  and  the  agency  of  Luzbel, 
the  evil  one.  It  would  have  fared  ill  with  Hermenegildo 
Salvatierra  had  he  been  aught  but  Commander,  or  amen 
able  to  local  authority.  But  the  reverend  Father,  Friar 
Manuel  de  Cortes,  had  no  power  over  the  political  execu 
tive,  and  all  attempts  at  spiritual  advice  failed  signally. 
He  retired  baffled  and  confused  from  his  first  interview  with 
the  Commander,  who  seemed  now  to  take  a  grim  satisfac 
tion  in  the  fateful  power  of  his  glance.  The  holy  Father 


96  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

contradicted  himself,  exposed  the  fallacies  of  his  own  argu 
ments,  and  even,  it  is  asserted,  committed  himself  to  several 
undoubted  heresies.  When  the  Commander  stood  up  at 
mass,  if  the  officiating  priest  caught  that  skeptical  and 
searching  eye,  the  service  was  inevitably  ruined.  Even 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Church  seemed  to  be  lost,  and  the 
last  hold  upon  the  affections  of  the  people  and  the  good 
order  of  the  settlement  departed  from  San  Carlos. 

The  long  dry  summer  passed.  As  each  fierce  day  "burned 
itself  out  in  little  whiffs  of  pearl-gray  smoke  on  the  moun 
tain  summits,  the  low  hills  that  surrounded  the  white  walls 
of  the  Presidio  grew  more  and  more  to  resemble  in  hue  the 
leathern  jacket  of  the  Commander,  and  nature  herself 
seemed  to  have  borrowed  his  dry  hard  glare.  The  earth 
was  cracked  and  seamed  with  drought ;  a  blight  had  fallen 
upon  the  orchards  and  vineyards,  and  the  rain,  long  de 
layed  and  ardently  prayed  for,  came  not.  The  sky  was  as 
tearless  as  the  right  eye  of  the  Commander.  Murmurs  of 
discontent,  insubordination  and  plotting  among  the  Indians 
reached  his  ears ;  he  only  set  his  teeth  the  more  firmly, 
tightened  the  knot  of  his  black  silk  headkerchief,  and  looked 
up  his  Toledo. 

The  last  day  of  the  year  1798  found  the  Commander  sit 
ting,  at  the  hour  of  evening  prayers,  alone  in  the  guard 
room.  He  no  longer  attended  the  services  of  the  Holy 
Church,  but  crept  away  at  such  times  to  some  solitary  spot, 
where  he  spent  the  interval  in  silent  meditation.  The  fire 
light  played  upon  the  low  beams  and  rafters,  but  left  the 
bowed  figure  of  Salvatierra  in  darkness.  Sitting  thus,  he 
felt  a  small  hand  touch  his  arm,  and  looking  down  saw  the 
figure  of  Pachita,  his  little  Indian  pupil,  at  his  knee.  "  Ah, 
littlest  of  all,"  said  the  Commander,  with  something  of  his 
old  tenderness,  lingering  with  wonderful  sweetness  over  the 
endearing  diminutives  of  his  native  speech — "sweet  one, 
what  doest  thou  here  \  Art  thou  not  afraid  of  him,  whom 
every  one  shuns  and  fears  ?" 

"No,"  said  the  little  Indian,  readily,  "not  in  the  dark. 
I  hear  your  voice — the  old  voice ;  I  feel  your  touch — the 
old  touch  ;  but  I  see  not  your  eye,  Senor  Comandante. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  97 

That  I  only  fear— and  that,  oh,  Senor  !  Oh,  my  father," 
said  the  child,  lifting  her  little  arms  toward  his— -"  that  I 
know  is  not  thine  own." 

The  Commander  shuddered  and  turned  away.  Then, 
recovering  himself,  he  kissed  Paclnta  gravely  on  the  fore 
head  and  bade  her  retire.  A  few  hours  later,  when  silence 
had  fallen  upon  the  Presidio,  he  sought  his  own  couch  and 
slept  peacefully. 

At  about  the  middle  watch  of  the  night  a  dusky  figure 
crept  through  the  low  embrasure  of  the  Commander's  apart 
ment.  Other  figures  were  flitting  through  the  parade- 
ground,  which  the  Commander  might  have  seen  had  he  not 
slept  so  quietly.  The  intruder  stepped  noiselessly  to  the 
couch  and  listened  to  the  sleeper's  deep-drawn  inspiration. 
Some  thing  glittered  in  the  fire-light  as  the  savage  lifted  his 
arm  ;  another  moment  and  the  sore  perplexities  of  Her- 
menegildo  Salvatierra  would  have  been  over,  when  suddenly 
the  savage  started  and  fell  back  in  a  paroxysm  of  terror. 
The  Commander  slept  peacefully,  but  his  right  eye  widely 
opened,  fixed  and  unaltered,  glared  coldly  on  the  would-be 
assassin.  The  man  fell  to  the  earth  in  a  fit,  and  the  noise 
awoke  the  sleeper. 

To  rise  to  his  feet,  grasp  his  sword,  and  deal  blows  thick 
and  fast  upon  the  mutinous  savages  who  now  thronged  the 
room,  was  the  work  of  a  moment.  Help  opportunely  arrived 
and  the  undisciplined  Indians  were  speedily  driven  beyond 
the  walls,  but  in  the  scuffle  the  Commander  received  a  blow 
upon  his  right  eye,  and  lifting  his  hand  to  that  mysterious 
organ  it  was  gone.  Never  again  was  it  found,  and  never 
again,  for  bale  or  bliss,  did  it  adorn  the  right  orbit  of  the 
Commander. 

With  it  passed  away  the  spell  that  had  fallen  upon  San 
Carlos.  The  rain  returned  to  invigorate  the  languid  soil, 
harmony  was  restored  to  priest  and  soldier,  the  green  grass 
presently  waved  over  the  sere  hill-sides,  the  children  flocked 
again  to  the  side  of  their  martial  preceptor,  a  Te  Deum  was 
sung  in  the  Mission  church,  and  pastoral  content  once  more 
smiled  upon  the  gentle  valleys  of  San  Carlos.  And  for 
southward  crept  the  General  Court,  with  its  master,  Peleg 

7 


98  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Scudder,  trafficking  in  beads  and  peltries  with  the  Indians, 
and  offering  glass  eyes,  wooden  legs,  and  other  Boston 
notions,  to  the  chiefs. — Frank  Bret  Harte,  in  San  Francisco 
Bulletin,  January  4,  1867. 


THE    CHANDOS    PICTURE. 

THE  bell  far  off  beats  midnight ;  in  the  dark 

The  sounds  have  lost  their  way  and  wander  slowly; 

Through  the  dead  air,  beside  me,  things  cry  "  Hark !" 
And  whisper  words  unholy. 

A  hand  as  soft  as  velvet  taps  my  cheek ; 

These  gusts  are  from  the  wings  of  unseen  vampires. 
How  the  thick  dust  on  that  last  tome  doth  speak 

Its  themes — dead  kings  and  empires  ! 

This  is  the  chamber — ruined,  waste,  forlorn — 

Shred  of  its  old-time  gildings,  paint,  and  splendor ; 

And  is  there  none  its  dim  decay  to  mourn, 
In  mystic  strains  and  tender  ? 

Why  waits  no  harper  gay,  with  elfin  hand 

On  tuneless  chords  to  harshly  hail  the  stranger — 

Who  treads  the  brink  of  an  enchanted  strand 
In  mist  and  midnight  danger  ? 

I  watch,  and  am  not  weary ;  all  night  long 

The  stars  look  shimmering  through  the  yawning  casement ; 
And  the  low  ring  of  their  unvarying  song 

I  hear  without  amazement. 

How  the  hours  pass  ! — with  that  low  murmur  blent, 

That  is  a  part  of  time,  yet  thrills  us  only 
When  all  besides  is  silent  and  close  pent, 

The  heart  is  chilled  and  lonely. 

I  watch,  and  am  not  weary : — I  have  heard 

Light  steps  and  whispers  pass  me,  all  undaunted ; 

Have  seen  pale  specters  glide,  where  nothing  stirred — 
Because  the  place  is  haunted. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  99 

And  wherefore  watch  I  fearless  ?  Wherefore  come 

Those  things  with  windy  garments  hovering  round  me  ? 

Whence  are  the  tongues,  the  tones,  the  stifled  hum, 
That  welcomed  and  have  bound  me  ? 

Lo !  on  the  wall,  in  mist  and  gloom  high  reared, 

A  luminous  face  adorns  the  structure  hoary ; 
Light-bearded,  hazel-eyed,  and  auburn-haired, 

And  bright  with  a  strange  glory. 

'Tis  but  the  semblance  of  a  long  dead  one — 

A  light  that  shines,  and  is  not — clouds  are  o'er  it ; 

Yet,  in  the  realms  of  thought,  it  beams  a  sun — 
And  stars  grow  pale  before  it. 

There,  tend  the  tones ;  through  that  wan  atmosphere 
Glide  the  faint  specters  with  a  stately  motion ; 

Slowly  as  cloudy  ships  to  sunset  steer 
Along  the  airy  ocean. 

Shades  of  the  great,  but  unremembered  dead, 

Mourn  there,  and  moaning,  ever  restless,  wander ; 

For  in  the  presence  of  that  pictured  head, 
Their  waning  shapes  grow  grander. 

And  here  watch  I,  beneath  those  eyes  sublime, 

A  listing  to  the  soft,  resounding  numbers, 
That  float  like  wind  along  the  waves  of  time, 

And  cheat  me  of  my  slumbers. 

But  who  shall  calm  the  restless  sprites  that  rove 

In  the  mute  presence  of  that  painted  poet  ? 
In  vain  their  triumph  in  old  wars  or  love ; 

No  future  times  shall  know  it. 

For,  "  oh  !"  they  cry,  "  his  song  has  named  us  not  ! 

He  stretched  no  hand  to  lift  the  pall  flung  o'er  us." 
And  still  they  moan  and  shriek — "  forgot !  forgot !" 

In  faint  and  shivering  chorus. 

Mightiest  of  all — my  master  !     Dare  but  I 

Touch  the  shrunk  chords  thy  hand  divine  hath  shaken, 

How  would  the  heroes  of  the  days  gone  by 
Throng  round  me  and  awaken  ! 


100  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Oh  !  many  a  heart  the  worthiest — many  a  heart — 

Cold  now — but  once  an  angel's  warm,  bright  dwelling 

Waits  but  the  minstrel's  wizard  hand  to  start 
With  life  immortal  swelling  ! 

And  thou,  so  missed,  where  art  thou?     On  what  sphere 
Of  nightless  glory  hast  thou  built  thine  altar  ? 

What  shining  hosts  bow  down  thy  song  to  hear — 
Thy  heart,  the  harp,  and  psalter  ? 

Thy  dust  is  mingled  with  thy  native  sod — 

Exhaled  like  dew  thy  soul  that  ranged  unbounded ; 
But  who  shall  dare  to  tread  where  Shakespeare  trod 

Or  strike  the  harp  he  sounded  ? 

EDWARD  POLLOCK. 


REMARKABLE    MASONIC    INCIDENT. 


JHE  first  masonic  funeral  that  ever  took  place  in 
California  occurred  in  the  year  1849,  arid  was 
performed  over  the  body  of  a  brother  found 
drowned  in  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco.  An 
account  of  the  ceremony  states  that  on  the 
body  of  the  deceased  was  found  a  silver  mark  of  Mason, 
upon  which  was  engraved  the  initials  of  his  name.  A  little 
further  investigation  revealed  to  the  beholders  the  most 
singular  exhibition  of  masonic  emblems  that  were  ever 
drawn  by  the  ingenuity  of  man  upon  the  human  skin. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  history  or  traditions  of  Freemasonry 
equal  to  it.  Beautifully  dotted  on  his  left  arm,  in  red  or 
blue  ink,  which  time  could  not  efface,  appeared  all  the  em 
blems  of  the  Entered  Apprentice.  There  were  the  Holy  Bible, 
the  square,  and  the  compass,  the  twenty-four-inch  gauge, 
and  the  common  gavel.  There  were  also  the  Mosaic  pave 
ment  representation  of  the  ground-floor  of  King  Solomon's 
temple,  the  identical  tessel  which  surrounds  it,  and  the 
blazing  star  in  the  center.  On  his  right  arm,  and  artifi 
cially  executed  in  the  same  indelible  liquids,  were  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  1QJ 

emblems  pertaining  to  the  fellow  craft,  viz.  :  the  plumb, 
the  square,  and  the  level.  There  were  also  the  five  columns 
representing  the  five  orders  of  architecture  —  the  Tuscan, 
Doric,  Ionic,  Corinthian,  and  Composite. 

In  removing  the  garments  from  his  body,  the  trowel 
presented  itself,  with  all  the  working  tools  of  operative 
masonry,  besides  all  the  emblems  peculiar  to  the  degree 
of  a  master  mason.  Conspicuously  on  his  breast  were  the 
lights  of  masonry.  Over  his  heart  was  the  pot  of  incense. 
On  the  other  parts  of  his  body  were  the  bee-hive,  the  book 
of  constitutions,  guarded  by  the  Tyler's  sword  ;  the  sword 
pointing  to  a  naked  heart ;  all-seeing  Eye  ;  the  anchor  and 
ark,  the  holy-glass,  the  scythe,  the  forty-seventh  problem 
of  Euclid  ;  the  sun,  moon,  stars,  and  comet,  the  three  steps, 
emblematical  of  youth,  manhood,  and  age.  Admirably 
executed  was  the  weeping  virgin,  reclining  on  a  broken 
column,  upon  which  lay  the  book  of  constitutions.  In  her 
left  hand  she  held  the  pot  of  incense,  the  emblem  of  a  pure 
heart ;  and  in  her  uplifted  hand  a  sprig  of  acacia,  the 
emblem  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  Immediately  be 
neath  her  stood  winged  Time,  with  his  scythe  by  his  side, 
which  cuts  the  brittle  thread  of  life,  and  the  hour-glass  at 
his  feet,  which  is  ever  reminding  us  that  our  lives  are 
withering  away.  The  withered  and  attenuated  fingers  of 
the  destroyer  were  delicately  placed  amid  the  long  and 
gracefully  flowing  ringlets  of  the  disconsolate  mourner. 
Thus  were  the  striking  emblems  of  mortality  and  immor 
tality  beautifully  blended  in  one  pictorial  representation. 
It  was  a  spectacle  such  as  masons  never  saw  before,  and 
in  all  probability  such  as  the  fraternity  will  never  witness 
again.  The  brother1  s  nam  e  was  never  known.  — Sacramento 
State  Capital  Reporter,  May  27,  1868. 


102  .  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


NATIONAL    MEN    OF    AMERICA. 
ANDREW    JACKSON. 


N"  personal  appearance  lie  was  tall,  spare,  slender 
and  muscular.  There  was  not  an  ounce  6f  sur 
plus  flesh  upon  his  whole  body.  He  possessed 
more  than  ordinary  physical  strength,  ttut  it  con 
sisted  more  in  activity  and  endurance,  and  in 
prompt,  resolute,  and  fearless  energy,  than  in  what  we  are 
accustomed  to  call  "brute  strength.  It  was  not  the  strength 
of  the  giant,  but  that  of  a  high-souled,  fearless  hero,  who 
would  confront  a  legion  of  giants  if  necessary  to  defend  the 
weak  or  to  succor  the  oppressed.  He  had  a  lofty,  command 
ing  head,  and  a  highly  intellectual  forehead.  But  his  whole 
soul  was  visible  in  his  dark-gray  eye.  I  never  saw  such  an 
eye  in  any  other  human  head.  It  was  kind  and  gentle,  reso 
lute  and  intellectual.  It  was  as  tender  at  times  as  the  eye 
of  a  woman— as  piercing  at  times  as  the  eye  of  an  eagle — and 
there  were  times  in  Andrew  Jackson's  life,  when  that  dark 
gray  eye  was  as  terrible  as  the  eye  of  the  roused  lion.  No 
danger,  moral  or  physical,  could  make  it  quail.  Then  it 
was  a  thoroughly  honest  eye.  It  loved  and  respected  truth 
and  justice,  and  hated  and  despised  fraud  and  falsehood, 
and  every  kind  of  dishonorable  action.  Andrew  Jackson 
was  born  a  hero,  and  every  man  who  approached  him  had 
to  recognize  him  as  such,  that  is,  as  a  man  formed  by  nature 
to  be  the  leader  of  Ms  fellow-men,  in  any  great  human  emer 
gency. 


WEBSTER. 


Daniel  Webster  was  a  man  of  entirely  different  type.  He 
was  not  so  tall  as  Andrew  Jackson,  but  slow  and  thought 
ful,  rather  than  active,  and  more  resolute  and  fearless.  In 
fact,  the  whole  man  seemed  to  have  been  cast  in  a  solid, 
massive,  powerful  mold.  Every  thing  about  him,  even  to 
his  manner  of  walking  and  talking,  indicated  power,  posi 
tive  power,  solid  power,  power  that  would  neither  seek  nor 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  103 

slmn  exertion,  "but  which,  if  once  raised  into  full  exertion, 
might  become  almost  irresistible.  But  how  shall  I  de 
scribe  his  head  ?  I  have  never  seen  such  another  head  upon 
a  human  body — I  never  expect  to  see  such  another  human 
head  again.  In  size,  weight,  magnitude,  and  capacity,  it 
was  absolute,  stupendous,  and,  though  finely  shaped,  it 
would  have  appeared  perfectly  enormous  had  it  not  had  a 
proportionably  powerful  body  to  support  it.  But  the  col 
umn  seemed  to  have  been  made  expressly  to  uphold  the 
majestic  capital.  His  forehead  was  in  harmony  with  the 
head,  large,  broad,  lofty,  and  massive.  The  huge  brain 
had  expanded  and  pressed  it  forward  until  it  had  overshad 
owed  the  other  features  of  his  face.  His  eyes  were  large, 
dark,  and  deep  set,  and  filled  with  a  strange,  smoldering, 
intellectual  light.  There  was  a  singular  look  in  that  dark, 
deep  eye.  It  never  seemed  to  look  at  your  form  or  features, 
but  at  your  soul.  You  felt  when  it  turned  upon  you,  that 
it  was  taking  the  gauge  of  your  mind,  and  weighing  your 
intellectual  value  as  a  unit  in  the  sum  of  humanity.  The 
other  features  of  his  face  were  well-formed,  very  regular, 
and  intellectual,  giving  an  air  of  composure  and  refinement 
to  his  dark  and  dignified  countenance.  But  in  my  judg 
ment,  the  grand  characteristic  of  Daniel  Webster  was  not 
activity  or  energy,  but  power,  physical  and  intellectual. 
His  moral  attributes  were  not  on  a  level  with  his  other 
great  qualities.  His  great  defect  was  self-indulgence,  and 
therefore  it  must  be  conceded  that  he  had  but  little  of  the 
martyr  or  the  true  hero  in  his  composition.  But  in  tran 
scendent,  intellectual  greatness,  Daniel  Webster,  in  my 
opinion,  has  had  but  few  equals,  either  in  ancient  or  mod 
ern  times. 

CLAY. 

Henry  Clay  was  a  man  of  an  entirely  different  type.  He 
was  a  thorough  Western  man  ;  tall  and  slender,  with  a  frank, 
careless,  genial,  fearless  manner.  He  had  a  large,  manly 
head,  and  a  lofty,  intellectual  forehead.  He  had  fair  hair, 
fair  complexion,  and  blue  eyes.  His  eye  was  bright,  frank, 
open,  intellectual,  and  fearless.  It  was  an  eminently  prac- 


104  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

tical  eye.  It  just  saw  the  world  as  it  was,  and  understood 
it  perfectly,  and  knew  how  to  make  the  "best  of  it  on  all 
occasions.  The  other  features  of  his  face  were  wanting  in 
regularity,  and  might  be  called  remarkably  plain,  but  the 
glow  of  generous  feeling  and  intelligence  that  overspread 
his  whole  countenance  was  unmistakable.  And  when  ani 
mated  in  debate,  that  frank,  open,  manly  countenance 
underwent  a  transfiguration  that  made  it  appear  positively 
handsome — and  the  ladies,  who  ought  to  be  the  best  of 
judges  in  such  cases,  esteemed  Henry  Clay  at  all  times,  the 
most  captivating  man  of  the  age.  But  the  principal  charm 
about  Henry  Clay  was  his  incomparable  voice.  That  mar 
velous  voice  was  capable  of  unlimited  modulation,  and  of 
expressing  with  the  highest  possible  perfection  every  passion 
and  emotion  of  the  soul.  When  he  rose  in  his  place  in  the 
Senate  to  make  one  of  those  inimitable  speeches,  which,  for 
the  time  being,  swept  every  thing  before  them,  it  was  inter 
esting  to  witness  the  effect  of  his  .voice  and  manner  upon 
the  audience.  Before  he  had  uttered  a  half  a  dozen  senten 
ces  you  would  hear  a  rustling  of  silk  dresses,  as  if  a  breeze 
of  autumn  wind  had  swept  through  the  galleries,  from  the 
commotion  and  excitement  among  the  ladies.  And  as  he 
proceeded  with  his  discourse  this  excitement  would  increase 
and  communicate  itself  to  the  whole  audience — Senate  and 
all.  The  effect  for  the  time-being  was  utterly  irresistible, 
and  therefore  indescribable. — Gen.  James  SJdelds. 


SELECTIONS     FROM    AN    ADDRESS    OF   T.    STARR    KING,  BEFORE    THE    SAN 
JOAQUIN  VALLEY  AGRICULTURAL  SOCIETY,  AT  STOCKTON,  SEPT.,  1862. 


EARLY  four  months  ago  I  had  the  privilege  of 
climbing  to  the  top  of  Mount  Diablo,  which 
rises  like  an  enchanted  billow,  from  the  plain. 
(From  San  Francisco  we  see  only  one  mountain 
and  one  peak.  Here  you  see  two.  Is  this  a 
sign  that  in  Stockton  you  have  had  a  double  share  of  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  105 

power  of  Satan  to  contend  with  ?)  How  glorious  the  view 
was  from  the  highest  peak  in  May  !  Sweeps  and  slopes  of 
green,  such  as  no  artist's  colors  at  the  East  could  imitate, 
the  San  Joaquin  plains  beneath,  emerged  from  their  flood, 
embroidered  with  flowers,  and  bursting  into  the  promise 
which  this  week  fulfills — the  San  Joaquin  itself  so  dingy 
that  it  looked  as  though  it  flowed  molten  from  Copperopolis 
— the  sea  showing  its  unruffled  azure  far-off  between  the 
cliffs  of  the  Golden  Gate  ;  and  on  the  east  the  snowy  guards 
of  all  your  opulence,  the  mighty  bulwark  of  the  Sierra, 
visible  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles— its  lower  slopes  as 
rich  in  gold  as  their  crests  at  evening  with  the  gold  of  sun 
set  ;  its  further  slopes  veined  with  silver  only  less  white 
and  pure  than  those  great  crests  at  noon  ! 

One  sees  in  a  moment  from  that  elevation,  in  early  May, 
what  a  bounteous  and  wonderful  district  it  is  which  your 
Society  represents.  But  suppose  that  some  one  with  a 
powerful  telescope  could  be  lifted  to  that  eminence  in  early 
September,  and  make  his  first  acquaintance  then  with  your 
district  and  the  State  !  What  would  his  impression  be  ? 
Would  he  not  suppose  that  he  was  lifted  over  a  boundless 
desert  ?  Would  he  not  believe  that  the  six  rainless  months 
were  a  virtual  curse  of  Providence  sealed  into  the  sallow 
landscape  ?  Would  he  not  imagine  that  if  any  inhabitants 
dwelt  there,  they  were  fed  either  by  manna  or  by  bacon 
from  the  East  I  Would  he  not  behold,  in  the  wide-spread 
desolation,  and  in  the  hot,  thick  air,  the  fulfillment  of  the 
doom  of  death  upon  Nature — "Dust  thou  art,  and  unto 
dust  thou  shalt  return?" 

What  would  our  visitor  on  this  height  be  likely  to  say, 
if  told  that  the  landscape,  so  brown  and  lugubrious  beneath 
him,  inclosed  an  agricultural  opulence  of  which  the  figures 
seem  almost  miraculous  ;  that  its  grain  crops  average  double 
those  of  the  Eastern  States  ;  that  fruits  were  then  ripening 
all  around  him  in  surpassing  luxuriance  and  beauty  ;  and 
that  the  growth  of  the  grape  in  that  blasted  landscape, 
during  the  last  three  years,  surpasses  any  thing  known  in 
the  most  favored  districts  of  the  Rhine  lands — France  or 
Italy  ?  What  would  he  say,  if  his  telescope  should  bring 


106  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP  BOOK. 

within  vision  all  that  the  District  Fairs  and  the  State  Fair 
will  collect  during  this  month  to  attest  the  strength  and 
richness  of  our  soil  ?  He  would  see,  to  his  amazement,  that 
the  State  which  seems  given  over,  in  a  general  view,  to  the 
"abomination  of  desolation,"  is  really  the  field  of  two 
immense  "  horns  of  plenty,' ' — one  widening  do \vnward  from 
the  pinnacle  of  Mt.  Shasta,  the  other  widening  upward  from 
the  mountains  of  San  Bernardino,  crammed  with  the  riches 
of  granaries  and  orchards,  and  overflowing  all  upon  the 
metropolis  in  the  center  of  the  coast  line  by  the  Golden 
Gate  !  He  would  see  that  we  are  called  upon  by  our 
copious  blessings  to  be  the  most  grateful  and  the  most 
patriotic  people  on  the  globe. 

Let  me  say,  first,  that  the  farmers  here  are  to  be  congratu 
lated  on  the  intrinsic  nobleness  of  their  office  and  labor. 
All  honest  labor  is  noble.  But  in  respect  to  physical  toil, 
it  is  impossible  to  conquer  the  instinct  of  the  race,  which 
assigns  greater  dignity  to  the  skillful  industry  expended 
directly  upon  mother  earth. 

If  an  aroma  could  always  attend  gold,  telling  you  what 
ways  it  was  gained,  whether  it  was  inherited  or  won  by 
enterprise  and  skill,— and  if  earned,  whether  in  ways 
useful  or  hurtful  to  the  higher  interests  of  society,  there 
would  be  no  danger  of  a  mean  worship  of  money.  If 
a  man's  silver  and  gold  told  the  story  at  once  whether  he 
earned  it  in  making  sugar  or  turning  it  into  liquor — in  rais 
ing  wheat  or  in  speculating  on  it — in  weaving  honest  cloth 
or  in  weaving  shoddy— in  putting  soles  to  shoes  for  soldiers 
or  sham  ones  which  prove  that  the  makers  hadn't  any  soul 
at  all — in  spinning  cotton  or  in  serving  as  one  of  the  crowd 
of  unnecessary  agents  in  its  distribution,  money  would 
carry  its  own  judgment  with  it. 

In  any  such  system,  the  farmer  need  not  fear  to  let  the 
aroma  of  his  money  expend  itself  far  and  wide.  It  would 
sprinkle  the  wholesomeness  of  winds,  the  perfume  of  blos 
soms,  the  strengthening  smell  of  the  soil,  the  fragrance  of 
noblest  uses. 

The  farmer  that  pays  his  debts  can' t  get  rich  dishonestly 
in  the  sight  of  heaven.  There  can't  be  too  much  wheat,  too 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  107 

many  noble  cattle,  too  much  wool,  an  excess  of  excellent 
peaches  and  pears,  too  many  pumpkins,  or  even  too  great  a 
crowd  of  cabbages,  if  they  are  not  eaten  so  immoderately  as 
to  come  to  a  head  again  on  human  shoulders. 

The  two  noblest  classes  of  labor  are  the  extremes — those 
expended  on  the  material  soil,  and  upon  the  mental  and 
spiritual  regions— those  that  improve  the  earth  and  that 
make  humanity  more  fertile — the  men  who  give  us  beets  and 
grapes,  and  the  men  who  give  us  ideas  ;  the  productive 
thinkers  who  show  the  fields  can  double  their  products 
without  waste,  and  those  who  improve  the  capacity  of  the 
human  mind  and  hand  ;  the  men  who  labor  wisely  for  the 
fulfillment  of  the  world's  prayer,  "Give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread,"  and  the  men  who,  by  their  genius  and  service, 
prove  to  us  the  immense  significance  of  that  other  passage 
of  instruction,  "  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by 
every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God." 

The  land  is  the  noblest  of  the  gifts  of  God  to  humanity. 
A  full  treatise  on  agriculture — its  annals  and  vicissitudes — 
would  be  a  history  of  human  society  from  Eden  to  the  stak 
ing  out  of  the  last  "claim"  in  Iowa  or  Oregon.  The  first 
step  from  the  nomadic  state  upward  toward  stable  civiliza 
tion  is  into  the  feeling  of  personal  possession  of  the  soil. 
The  fence  is  the  first  rude  boundary  between  savagism  and 
civilization. 

It  requires  800  acres  of  land,  we  are  told,  to  supply  a 
hunter  as  much  food  as  half  an  acre  will  furnish  under 
cultivation.  And  on  the  800  acre  system  of  supply,  society 
is  impossible  ;  education  is  impossible  ;  trades  and  arts  are 
out  of  the  question  ;  combinations  of  power  and  interchange 
of  products  and  help  are  unattainable.  Just  in  proportion 
as  the  land  is  better  tilled,  and  a  smaller  quantity  of  it  is 
made  to  yield  rich  returns,  the  progress  of  the  race  is  aided, 
and  becomes  manifest. 

In  dealing  with  the  land  man  is  called  to  be  a  co-worker 
with  the  infinite  mind.  This  is  the  foundation  of  the 
nobleness  of  the  farmer's  office. 

The  air  is  given  to  us.  We  can  not  alter  its  constitution, 
or  change  its  currents.  The  sea  is  not  placed  under  our 


108  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

dominion.  We  can  not  freshen  it,  or  increase  its  saltness  ; 
we  can  not  level  or  raise  its  billows.  The  rain  is  ordained 
for  each  latitude,  and  we  can  not  hasten  or  vary  the  bounty 
of  the  clouds.  Minerals  are  provided  in  a  definite,  unalter 
able  measure  by  the  creative  force.  But  the  soil  we  can 
make  our  own.  We  can  increase  and  renew  its  richness. 
God  does  not  make  it  to  be  a  fixed  or  self-perpetuating 
blessing  like  the  atmosphere  and  the  ocean.  It  is  a  trust. 
So  much  He  will  do  for  it ;  but  a  very  great  deal  is  left 
for  us  to  be  faithful  in.  In  the  management  of  the  soil, 
the  Creator  takes  us  into  partnership.  And  on  our  fidelity, 
within  the  bounds  of  our  trust,  the  progress  of  success 
depends. 

The  greatness  of  the  trust  is  seen  in  this — that  agriculture 
requires  the  greatest  amount  and  variety  of  knowledge,  and 
is  everywhere  latent  in  its  development.  We  are  only 
now  entering  upon  the  study  of  it.  Nation  after  nation  has 
withered  and  shriveled  because  it  could  not  manage  its  land 
— because  it  had  not  science  enough,  vigor  enough,  virtue 
enough  to  organize  the  State  so  that  the  soil  could  be 
thoroughly  tilled  and  refreshed.  As  soon  as  the  land  be 
gins  to  yield  regularly  decreasing  stores,  so  that  small 
farms  are  absorbed  into  larger  ones,  and  poverty  creeps 
toward  the  farmer' s  hearth,  there  is  radical  evil  in  the  State. 
Its  prosperity  is  not  rightly  based.  Its  roots  are  feeble.  It 
has  begun  to  die.  It  is  not  able  to  sustain  the  tremendous 
partnership  with  Providence  in  making  the  soil  creative. 

In  fact,  we  shall  not  reach  the  right  point  for  appreciat 
ing  the  eminence  of  agriculture  as  a  duty,  a  profession,  and 
a  trust,  until  we  see  that  the  earth  is  not  yet  finished.  The 
Creator  has  left  part  of  the  fashioning  to  man,  or  rather 
waits  work  through  man  in  perfecting  it.  The  air  comes 
up  to  the  divine  idea.  The  sea  also  answers  to  the  majesty 
of  God' s  first  conception  of  it.  The  clouds  correspond  in 
their  charms  of  form  and  glory  of  color  to  the  archetypes  of 
them  in  the  divine  imagination.  The  highest  mountain 
tops,  of  splintered  crag  or  dazzling  snow,  can  not  be  im 
proved  any  more  than  they  can  be  altered  by  the  power 
and  wit  of  man. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  109 

But  the  earth  does  not  yet  fulfill  the  divine  intention.  It 
was  not  made  for  nettles,  nor  for  the  manzanita  and  chapar 
ral.  It  was  made  for  grain,  for  orchards,  for  the  vine,  for 
the  comfort  and  luxuries  of  thrifty  homes.  It  was  made 
for  these  through  the  educated,  organized,  and  moral  labor 
of  man.  As  plows  run  deeper,  as  irrigation  is  better  under 
stood  and  observed,  as  the  capacity  of  different  soils  are 
comprehended,  as  types  of  vegetation  are.  improved,  as 
economy  in  the  renewal  of  the  vitality  of  the  land  is 
learned  and  practiced,  the  process  of  creation  goes  on  ;  chaos 
subsides  ;  the  divine  power  and  beauty  appear  in  Nature. 


In  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis  we  read  that  God  said,  on 
the  third  day,  "Let  the  waters  under  the  heavens  be 
gathered  together  into  one  place,  and  let  the  dry  land  ap 
pear  ;  and  it  was  so."  But  this  third  day's  work  is  not 
yet  over.  It  was  only  in  the  general  and  "in  the  rough" 
that  the  separation  first  took  place.  The  best  lands  of  the 
globe  are  still  saturated  and  swampy.  Man  is  to  complete 
the  fulfillment  of  that  command.  Drainage  is  the  process 
that  perfects  it.  Every  acre  of  opulent  bog  and  bounteous 
tule  from  which  the  coarse  grasses  are  banished,  and  of 
which  the  snakes,-  frogs,  and  turtles  are  dispossessed,  adds 
a  new  evidence  of  its  fulfillment,  and  promotes  the  agent 
in  it  to  the  honor  of  being  an  implement  of  Providence  in 
completing  the  task  of  creation. 

And  the  dignity  of  agriculture  is  seen  from  this  point  of 
view,  in  the  difficulty,  also,  that  attends  it.  It  is  easy  for 
a  savage  tribe  sparsely  scattered  over  a  vast  country,  to 
scratch  out  some  grain  and  common  vegetables  for  a  rude 
subsistence.  But  for  an  increasing  civilized  empire  to  de 
velop  the  capacities  of  the  land,  so  that  it  shall  not  be  ex 
hausted,  but  furnish  ample  food  to  enlarging  generations, 
is  a  very  difficult  thing. 

Nations  always  begin  on  the  poorest  soils  of  their  domain. 
Many  of  them  have  never  been  able  to  manage  the  richor 
ones,  which  require  clearing  and  drainage — and  have  died 


110  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

because  of  that  impotence.  Some  have  brought  these  more 
fertile  tracts  under  dominion  for  awhile,  but  have  not  been 
able  to  keep  control  of  them,  and  have  faded  away  to  leave 
them  to  the  reptile  and  miasma.  The  traveler  by  the  seats 
of  ancient  empire,  in  parts  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  on  the 
rich  lands  of  the  Tigris,  and  the  Euphrates,  in  Asia  Minor, 
and  in  Syria,  recalls  the  words  of  the  Proverbs,  "  I  went  by 
the  field  of  the  slothful,  and  lo,  it  was  all  grown  over  with 
thorns,  and  nettles  had  covered  the  face  thereof,  and  the 
stone  wall  thereof  was  broken  down.  Then  I  saw  and 
considered  it  well  ;  I  looked  upon  it  and  received  instruc 
tion." 

Agriculture  can  be  successful  only  where  the  people  are 
moral ;  where  they  try  diligently  to  learn  the  conditions  of 
success  in  treating  the  land,  and  will  receive  it  as  a  trust ; 
and  where,  too,  the  State  is  so  well  and  justly  organized 
that  near  markets  are  afforded,  so  that  the  soil  can  receive 
back  the  aliments  derived  from  it  and  essential  to  its  fer 
tility.  As  yet  in  history,  the  kingdoms  have  been  very 
few  that  could  take  care  of  and  develop  their  richest  soils. 
They  have  known  enough  to  be  warriors  and  conquerors, 
to  create  literature,  to  gem  magnificent  temples  and  muse 
ums  with  trophies  of  art — but  they  have  not  known  enough 
to  be  successful  farmers,  to  insure  the  fir-tree  for  the  thorn, 
and  the  myrtle-tree  for  the  briar — to  bring  out  and  keep 
out  the  beauty  on  the  land  which  Providence  designed, 
and  to  base  a  permanent  civilization  on  fields  thoroughly 
plowed  and  refreshed,  and  on  meadows  and  morasses 
dried,  diked  and  guarded  by  watchful  energy  and  thrift. 

The  eminence  and  dignity  of  the  farmer's  mission  is  seen 
not  only  when  on  this  large  scale  we  look  at  its  relations  to 
the  creative  Providence,  and  its  difficulties,  but  also  when 
on  a  large  scale  we  look  at  the  facts  associated  with  it. 

Virgil,  the  most  graceful  and  elaborate  of  the  old  Latin 
poets,  was  requested — so  we  read — after  the  Roman  civil 
wars  had  devastated  Italy,  to  rekindle  a  devotion  to  agri 
culture  by  a  poem  on  its  offices  and  pleasures.  He  wrote 
the  "Georgics,"  which  all  competent  critics  account  supe 
rior  in  poetic  merit  to  the  ^Eneid  and  its  story  of  battle  and 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

heroism.  This  is  a  significant  intimation  of  the  poetic  re 
sources  in  the  large  contemplation  of  agriculture.  Insight 
into  the  processes  of  nature  reveals  the  very  richest  beauty, 
invested,  too,  with  wonder. 

Suppose  that  early  in  this  year  the  whole  world  had  bent 
itself  in  supplication  to  the  Invisible  Ruler — every  man  and 
woman  from  the  arctic  circle  to  the  hot  equator  kneeling 
in  the  humility  of  conscious  dependence,  and  lifting  up 
from  every  zone  the  prayer — "Forsake  us  not,  this  year, 
Great  Benefactor,  but  bless  us  in  our  helplessness,  from  the 
treasury  of  thy  goodness."  And  suppose  that  after  such  a 
verbal  petition  the  supply  had  come — that  in  every  house 
had  been  found  the  water,  and  the  stores,  the  bounties  of 
vegetable  and  animal  food,  how  surprising  would  the 
miraculous  mercy  have  seemed  ? 

But  how  much  more  surprising  and  inspiring  is  the  real 
wonder,  than  such  a  shower  upon  a  barren  globe  could  be  ! 
With  few  prayers  for  it  the  great  miracle  has  been  wrought, 
and  in  the  double  way  of  beauty  and  bounty.  For  what  is 
the  display  of  the  seasons  ?  Is  not  the  quickening  of  nature 
in  the  early  months  of  the  year  as  though  God  smiles  upon 
the  earth  at  the  equator,  and  then  the  spreading  wave  of 
that  benignity  sweeps  northward,  rolling  back  the  winter 
line,  loosing  the  fetters  of  the  frost,  melting  snows  into 
fertilizing  juices,  pressing  the  cold  clouds  farther  and 
farther  back,  and  from  the  tropics  to  the  edges  of  the  Polar 
Sea,  gladdening  the  soil  till  it  utters  in  spreading  verdure 
the  visible  green  lyric  of  its  joy  ?  And  the  summer  !  Is  it 
not  the  warm  effluence  of  his  breath  that  flows  northward, 
and  reveals  the  infinite  goodness  as  it  floats  through  the 
southern  groves,  and  fills  the  fruits  with  sweetness,  thickens 
the  sap  of  the  sugar  fields,  nourishes  the  rice  plains,  feeds 
the  energies  of  the  temperate  clime,  blesses  the  hardy 
orchards  and  the  struggling  wheat  and  corn,  and  dies  amid 
the  everlasting  ice,  after  completing  the  circuit  of  its  mis 
sions  in  clothing  the  northern  woods  with  life  ?  And  then 
the  many-hued  pomp  of  harvest  comes,  when  the  more 
ruddy  light  and  the  gorgeous  coloring  repeat  the  joy  of  the 
Creator  in  the  vast  witnesses  of  His  beneficence,  and  the 


112  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

tired  fields  yield  to  the  laborers  their  ample  bounty,  and 
seem  to  whisper,  ' '  Take,  O  children  of  men,  and  be  grate 
ful,  until  the  course  of  the  stupendous  miracle  is  renewed  !" 

If  we  could  see  the  wheat  woven  by  fairy  spinners,  and 
the  apples  rounded,  and  painted,  and  packed  with  juice  by 
elfin  fingers — or  if  the  sky  were  a  vast  granary  or  provision 
store,  from  which  our  needs  were  supplied  in  response  to 
verbal  prayers  —  who  could  help  cherishing  a  constant 
undertone  of  wonder  at  the  miraculous  forces  that  encircle 
us  1  But  consider  how  much  more  amazing  is  the  fact ! 
Consider  how  out  of  the  same  moisture  the  various  flavors 
are  compounded.  The  dew  that  drops  in  the  tropics  is 
transmitted  into  the  orange  liquor,  and  banana  pulp,  and 
sweet  substance  of  the  fig  ;  the  pomegranate  stores  itself 
with  fragrance  and  savor  from  it ;  the  various  colors  and 
qualities  of  the  grape  are  drawn  from  it ;  and  in  the  tem 
perate  orchards  the  rain  is  distilled  in  the  dark  arteries  of 
trees  into  the  peach  and  the  pear,  the  apple  and  the  plum. 
When  a  traveling  trickster  pours  several  different  liquors 
from  one  bottle  into  cups  among  the  spectators,  it  is  called 
magical.  But  nature,  not  by  deception,  but  actually,  does 
pour  for  us  one  tasteless  liquid  into  all  the  varieties  of  taste 
which  the  vegetable  world  supplies.  If  by  a  miracle  kin 
dred  with  that  of  Christ  at  Cana,  a  jar  of  water  could  be 
to-night  converted  within  your  houses  into  wholesome 
wine,  would  it  be  so  admirable  as  the  ways  in  which  the 
vines  make  wine  upon  the  hill-side  out  of  the  vapor  and 
sunlight,  at  the  bidding  of  God  ? 

No  wonder  the  ancient  Roman  poet  wrote  his  most  fin 
ished  and  inspiring  verses  in  celebration  of  agriculture  ! 
The  whole  subject  is  fascinating  and  gorgeous  poetry.  And 
the  marvel  is  that  in  modern  times,  when  science  has  been 
unveiling  the  stores  of  enchantment  and  delight  in  the  pro 
cesses  of  vegetation,  poetry  has  lagged  so  far  behind,  and 
has  been  unequal  to  the  invitations  of  reality. 

One  of  the  most  exquisite  passages  I  am  acquainted  with 
in  American  literature  is  Longfellow's  version  in  "The 
Song  of  Hiawatha,"  of  the  Indian  legend  of  the  gift  of  corn 
to  the  world.  The  red  men  believed  that  it  was  a  mirac- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  113 

ulous  "benefaction  from  heaven.  Three  times  there  came 
from  the  skies  to  Hiawatha,  the  Indian  saint  and  hero,  a 
youth  from  the  upper  air, 

"  Dressed  in  garments  green  and  yellow, 
Sinking  through  the  purple  twilight, 
Through  the  splendor  of  the  sunset ; 
Plumes  of  green  bent  o'er  his  forehead, 
And  his  hair  was  soft  and  golden." 

This  miraculous  visitor,  calling  himself  Mondamin,  in 
vited  Hiawatha  to  wrestle  with  him,  and  charged  him,  if 
victorious,  to  strip  the  gay  garments  from  his  body,  and 
bury  him  where  the  rain  and  sun  might  fall  upon  his  grave. 
Three  times  they  wrestled  :— 

"  When  the  sun  through  heaven  descending, 
Like  a  red  and  burning  cinder 
From  the  hearth  of  the  Great  Spirit, 
Fell  into  the  western  waters, 
Came  Mondamin  for  the  trial, 
For  the  strife  with  Hiawatha  ; 
Came  as  silent  as  the  dew  comes, 
From  the  empty  air  appearing, 
Into  empty  air  returning, 
Taking  shape  when  earth  it  touches, 
But  invisible  to  all  men 
In  its  coming  and  its  going." 

The  third  time  Hiawatha  was  victorious.  He  stripped 
the  gay  garments  from  his  celestial  adversary,  buried  him 
as  he  was  directed  to  do,  and  watched  patiently  by  his 
grave, 

"  Till  at  length  a  small  green  feather 

From  the  earth  shot  slowly  upward, 

Then  another  and  another, 

And  before  the  Summer  ended 

Stood  the  maize  in  all  its  beauty, 

With  its  shining  robes  about  it, 

And  its  long,  soft,  yellow  tresses ; 

And  in  rapture  Hiawatha 
8 


1U  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

Cried  aloud,  '  It  is  Moridamin  ! 
Yes,  the  friend  of  man,  Mondamin  !' 

***** 
And  still  later  when  the  Autumn 
Changed  the  long  green  leaf  to  yellow, 
And  the  soft  and  juicy  kernels 
Grew  like  wampum,  hard  and  yellow, 
Then  the  ripened  ears  he  gathered, 
Stripped  the  withered  husks  from  off  them, 
As  he  once  had  stripped  the  wrestler, 
And  made  known  unto  the  people, 
This  new  gift  of  the  Great  Spirit." 

We  are  indebted  for  the  charming  conception  thus  charm 
ingly  wrought  into  measure  to  untutored  Indians.  I  do  not 
know  in  the  poets  of  this  country  any  fancy  or  creation 
equal  to  it,  to  embody  the  magic  of  modern  chemistry 
involved  in  every  harvest.  The  new  Virgil  will  yet  come 
who  shall  yet  instruct  and  delight  the  race  with  the  poetry 
of  agriculture,  and  make  the  farmer's  office  look,  as  it 
ought  to,  in  the  light  of  science,  sacred  and  real. 

Indeed,  by  simply  massing  the  products  of  the  country 
or  of  the  State  we  make  agriculture  look  wonderful  to  the 
dullest  eye.  If  all  that  our  republic  has  produced  of 
grains,  vegetables,  and  fruit,  in  the  last  six  months,  could 
be  gathered  into  one  mass,  it  would  fill  a  structure  as  high 
and  wide  as  an  ordinary  country  barn  in  New  England, 
which  would  stretch  from  the  easternmost  Atlantic  coast 
beyond  the  Mississippi,  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains,  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  or  the  Golden  Gate.  And  God 
made  us  to  take  our  supplies  from  such  a  bin,  every 
autumn,  as  one  people. 

If  we  could  see  such  a  collection  of  our  national  products, 
and  behold  the  contributions  of  South,  North,  and  West — 
each  completing  the  other's  lack,  we  should  discern  in  the 
harvest  a  mighty  cable  woven  out  of  cotton,  pumpkins, 
hay,  sugar-cane,  and  corn,  binding  East  and  West  and 
South  as  potently  as  the  slope  of  the  Alleghanies  and  the 
tributaries  of  the  Mississippi. 

A  single  cotton-field  may  not  seem  to  be  a  wonderful  ob- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  115 

ject  to  contemplate.  But  think  of  all  the  cotton-fields  of 
the  world  and  their  products  this  year  when  passed  through 
looms.  Weave  the  cotton  into  one  continuous  web,  and 
you  could  roll  out  a  sheet  more  than  a  yard  wide  which 
would  reach  from  here  to  the  sun.  A  careful  calculator 
has  conjectured  that,  "in  the  rapidly  increasing  demand 
for  material  for  woven  fabrics  and  for  machinery  to  manu 
facture  it,  but  a  few  years  would  be  required  for  our  looms 
to  fill  an  order  for  webs  of  double  belting  sufficiently  long 
to  connect  the  sun  with  each  of  the  planets,  in  the  way 
motion  is  communicated  from  the  large  drum  of  a  factory  to 
a  number  of  smaller  ones."  (Possibly  it  is  dangerous  to 
state  this  lest  some  friend  who  now  believes  intensely  that 
cotton  is  lord  of  all  civilization  on  the  globe,  may  be  pos 
sessed  with  the  conception  that  the  solar  system  does  move 
by  cotton  bands,  and  that  the  force  of  gravitation  is  only 
another  form  of  long  staple.} 

Think  of  the  harvest,  too,  in  the  light  of  a  calculation 
which  has  been  made  that  if  the  whole  human  race  were 
seated  at  once  at  a  table  spread  with  the  bounties  of  the 
Creator,  it  would  reach  five  times  around  the  widest  circum 
ference  of  the  globe  !  And  yet  twice  a  day,  at  least,  the  year 
through,  such  a  table  is  spread— 125,000  miles  long— and 
a  thousand  millions  of  human  beings  are  fed  on  the  in 
fluence  of  sunshine. 


Still  we  must  come  back  to  the  position  that  agriculture 
is  a  very  serious  trust.  There  is  little  cause  for  gratulation 
and  complacency,  if  in  all  this  work  we  have  not  been 
studying  the  conditions  of  long  continued  fertility — if  we 
have  been  "  skinning  the  land."  The  race  which  does  this, 
and  is  content  to  do  it,  after  the  fact  is  clearly  revealed  and 
the  consequences  are  foreshown,  is  simply  barbarous.  All 
its  immense  dividends  are  gained  by  paying  out  the  capital. 
It  is  traveling  the  swifter  to  bankruptcy.  It  is  mortgaging 
and  spending  the  patrimony  of  its  children.  It  is  wasting 
wealth  and  energy  at  such  a  rate  that  it  will  not  be  able  to 
renew  the  present  lands  when  they  shall  be  exhausted,  and 
will  not  have  the  capital  or  the  enterprise  to  begin  to 


116  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

attack  the  richest  soils  which  are  the  last  to  be  approached. 
There  is  not  probably  in  all  the  United  States  a  tract  of  a 
hundred  miles  square  which  is  cultivated  in  a  way  to  get 
dividends  and  save  capital  both — not  certainly  a  tract  of 
that  size  where  the  capital  is  increasing  in  power  of  product 
iveness.  Wherever  you  find  any  such  districts,  you  will 
find  them  in  the  least-favored  places — in  States  like 
Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island.  There  are  very  few 
districts  yet  where  labor  and  industry  are  diversified 
enough  within  small  compasses  to  furnish  near  markets, 
and  so  permit  the  land  to  be  properly  enriched,  that  its 
vigor  may  be  sustained.  Agriculture,  as  we  have  said  be 
fore,  is  so  important  that  its  complete  success  is  interwoven 
with  a  right  distribution  and  order  of  occupations— the 
symmetry  of  the  State.  We  have  not  sufficiently  diversified 
industry  on  our  coast,  as  yet,  to  make  farming  profitable 
to  the  land  and  to  the  tillers  of  it  besides.  So  much  the 
more  reason,  therefore,  for  notes  of  alarm  and  calls  to  the 
greater  prudence,  and  economy,  and  science  in  what  we  do 
till.  The  agricultural  societies  are  of  in  estimable  import 
ance  in  this  regard.  So  our  future  and  our  civilization — 
and  they  should  be  preaching  in  our  ears  the  principles  of 
the  indispensable  gospel  of  economy — smaller  farms,  more 
labor  on  tliem,  and  reverence  for  manure.  The  man  who, 
by  putting  the  amount  of  labor  on  twenty  acres  which  he 
spreads  over  fifty,  could  get  the  same  product,  is  bound  to 
retrench  his  limits  and  save  the  fertility  of  that  extra  thirty 
acres  for  a  future  emigrant.  Not  to  do  it  is  to  live  by  ma 
rauding  upon  nature,  not  by  cultivating  the  soil. 

Smaller  farms  and  concentration  of  labor  and  thought 
upon  these  are  the  necessary  conditions  of  success  in  another 
prominent  line  of  the  glory  of  agriculture, — namely,  bring 
ing  up  all  the  products  of  a  farm  to  the  level  of  their  type. 
California  has  been  widely  celebrated,  you  know,  at  the 
East,  in  the  size  of  its  productions.  You  have  heard,  per 
haps,  of  the  encounter  between  an  Englishman  and  the 
market  woman  at  a  fruit-stand  in  New  York.  The  English 
man  had  learned  of  the  Yankee  habit  of  bragging,  and  he 
thought  he  would  cut  the  comb  of  this  propensity.  He 


'CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

saw  some  huge  water-melons  on  the  market-woman's  stand, 
and  walking  up  to  her,  pointing  at  them  with  a  look  of 
disappointment,  said— "What!  don't  you  raise  bigger 
apples  than  those  in  America  ?"  The  woman  looked  at  him 
one  second,  and  then  retorted— "  Apples  !  Anybody  might 
know  you  was  an  Englishman.  Them  ain't  apples ! 
Them's  huckleberries? 

The  reputation  of  California  has  been  connected  with  such 
a  style  of  product,— beets  that  would  beat  Daniel  Lambert 
in  girth  ;  sweet  potatoes,  one  of  which  you  must  divide  to 
make  a  bushel ;  cabbages  that  seem  to  have  the  hydro- 
cephalus,  literal  swell  heads ;  squashes  as  large  as  the  nu 
cleus  of  an  average  comet. 

We  have  overcome  most  of  our  ambition  in  such  direc 
tions,  and  are  able  to  see  how  much  more  important  quality 
is.     The  Creator  desires  and  intends  that  the  human  race 
shall  have  perfect  peaches,  berries,  vegetables,  and  grapes. 
But  He  does  not  make  them   for   us.      He  holds   off  the 
sketch   or   picture   of    them  in  a  vision,    and  tempts    us 
to  work  up  to  them  and  attain  them  by  delicate  and  pa 
tient  skill.     California  has  produced  plums  in  larger  quan 
tities  that  are  nearer  perfection,  I  believe,  than  any  other 
portion  of  the  globe.     In  pears  it  is  unrivaled.     In  the 
quantities  of  strawberries,  peaches,  and  grapes,  its  fertility 
is   amazing.     But  in  the  artistic  excellence  of  these  last, 
much  remains  to  be  accomplished.     Who  will  give  us  a 
California  peach  that  has  the  exquisite  fragrance  which  we 
associate  with  that  fruit  when  finished  f    A  perfect  peach 
should  blend  color,  odor,  and  taste,  in  a  harmonious,  com 
pound  lusciousness,  just  as  a  perfect  song  combines  melody 
imagery,  and  sentiment.     A  true  peach  is  so  much  sunshine 
and  dew  wrought  into  a  poem.     The  average  of  California 
peaches  may  be  better  than  the  average  of  Eastern  ones. 
But  we  have  not  rivaled  the  orchards  on  the  other  side  in 
bringing  out  the  few  that  seem  to  be  reminiscences  of  the 
fruit  that  tempted  Eve. 

Speaking  of  Eve  at  once  suggests  apples,  and  reminds  us 
that,  though  there  are  a  million  of  apple-trees  in  the  State, 
either  the  trees  or  the  soil  need  schooling  in  the  art  of  pack- 


118  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

ing  properly  a  handsome  apple  skin  with  the  richest  pulp. 
The  apple  that  enables  us  to  understand  the  temptation  of 
our  ancestress,  has  not  yet  been  offered  for  sale  in  Cali 
fornia. 

Our  crop  of  strawberries  is  wonderful,  and  in  connection 
with  the  grapes — marking  the  inauguration  and  the  gorgeous 
finale  of  the  Pacific  fruit  festival — should  be  accounted 
prominent  in  the  blessings  of  a  residence  on  this  coast.  But 
to  be  very  critical,  one  must  say,  between  grapes  and  straw 
berries,  something  like  what  the  boarder  said  to  his  land 
lady :  "A  little  more  strength  in  the  tea,  ma'am,  and  not 
quite  so  much  in  the  butter  !"  The  strawberries,  in  spite 
$f  our  fervid  sun,  are  not  quite  sweet  enough.  The  grapes 
are  a  little  too  sweet,  and  that  excess  of  sugar  puts  too 
large  a  percentage  of  alcohol  in  the  light  wines  we  make 
from  them.  Whoever  effects  that  transfer  of  sugar  will 
help  the  creation  of  a  perfect  strawberry,  and  thus  gain 
credit  as  an  artist,  and  serve  the  cause  of  temperance,  and 
earn  blessings  as  a  reformer.  Think  of  the  millions  of  gal 
lons  of  wine  which  California  will  soon  produce,  and  then 
compute  the  tens  of  thousands  of  gallons  of  alcohol  which 
will  be  excluded  from  human  stomachs  and  banished  from 
existence  by  the  horticultural  skill  that  shall  coax  the  vines 
to  secrete  a  little  more  acid  in  their  fruit ! 

The  Creator  calls  on  the  farmer  to  work  with  him  in  com 
pleting  the  best  fruits  and  the  noblest  animals,  according  to 
their  types,  and  so  make  the  world  nobler  by  increasing 
their  number  on  the  earth.  The  true  farmer  is  an  artist. 
He  brings  out  into  fact  an  idea  of  God.  I  walk  among  the 
cattle-pens  of  a  great  fair  with  reverence  and  joy.  Here  at 
last  we  see  the  creatures  which  God  intended  to  eat  the 
grass  and  snuff  the  morning ! 

What  honor  the  highest  human  intelligence  pays  to  a 
painter  like  Landseer,  who  puts  a  superb  mimic  sheep  on 
canvas  ;  or  to  Troyon,  who  makes  a  dreamy-eyed  beneficent 
cow  look  at  us  from  his  colors  ;  or  to  Rosa  Bonheur,  who 
startles  us  with  tableaux  of  horses  clothed  with  thunder, 
and  bulls  whose  look  makes  the  room  unsafe !  This  is 
right.  But  what  shall  we  say  of  the  farmers  who  push  out 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  119 

of  existence  the  tribes  and  very  types  of  imperfect  or  de 
generate  cattle,  and  call  up  the  actual  horses  that  make  the 
verses  of  Job  sing  in  the  brain,  and  sheep  fit  to  be  clad  in 
the  finest  merino,  and  herds  whose  every  attitude  is  a  new 
masterpiece  of  lordliness  or  beauty  ? 

In  looking  at  such  stock,  I  can  easily  understand  the  en 
thusiasm  which  leads  people  to  invest  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  in  the  experiments  of  model  farms.  And 
then  I  wonder  why  anybody  is  led  away  by  a  literary  or 
artistic  ambition,  if  he  is  not  conscious  of  the  first  class  of 
powers.  Why  will  a  man  try  to  write  imperfect  rhymes, 
if  he  can  make  a  perfect  strawberry  vine  or  moss-rose  ? 
Why  put  a  blundering  idea  into  a  book,  if  you  can  raise  a 
litter  of  Suffolk  pigs,  and  thus  see  a  divine  idea  multiplied 
in  symmetrical  pork  ?  Why  waste  efforts  with  pigments  on 
canvas  when  you  can  put  an  Alderney  calf  on  a  landscape, 
with  eye  more  poetic  than  any  fawn  or  gazelle  ever  gazed 
with — or  can  ennoble  an  acre  with  an  actual  pair  of  young 
Devons  surveying  nature  in  their  dumb  dignity  ? 

These  gems  of  the  annual  shows  make  the  farmer's  office 
seem  noble,  a  co-creator  with  ttie  Infinite,  make  our  aver 
age  literature  and  art  seem  vapid,  and  in  one  light  make 
society  seem  sad,  for  where  are  the  men  and  women  in  so 
ciety  as  yet  that  are  as  noble  in  their  spheres  as  these  ani 
mals — that  are  fit  to  own  them,  that  come  within  a  distant 
range  of  fulfilling  their  type  in  the  Creator's  mind,  as  the 
beasts  do  that  are  unstained  with  sin  ? 


Rejoice,  all  of  you  that  are  called  to  the  dignity,  and 
trusts,  and  delights  of  the  farmer  or  the  horticulturist ! 
Rejoice  that  you  belong  to  a  class  through  whom  God  is 
finishing  his  creation,  and  who,  in  enlarging  the  Divine 
bounty,  are  adding  to  the  beauty  of  the  world  !  Whether 
an  acre,  a  garden  spot,  or  a  section  is  under  your  charge, 
feel  more  deeply  your  commission,  'be  glad  in  the  responsi 
ble  honor  of  your  lot.  Study  your  calling  more.  Resolve 
to  add  to  the  fertility  of  your  domain.  Remember  that 
weeds,  and  all  tares,  and  slovenly  labor  are  of  the  devil, 
and  tend  backward  to  chaos.  Remember  that  economy  is 


120  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  fountain  of  all  agricultural  opulence.  Subdue  the  lust 
for  immense  ranches.  If  you  have  fifty  acres,  and  burn  to 
have  fifty  more,  annex  fifty  that  lie  beneath  those  you  now 
own,  and  gain  your  title  by  a  subsoil  plow.  Own  deep 
thus  by  agriculture,  not  wide  by  scratchiculture.  Increase 
the  beauty  of  your  homestead,  by  taste  which  costs  noth 
ing  ;  by  the  training  of  noble  trees  and  lovely  flowers, 
whose  shade  and  grace  will  be  a  dividend  of  which  you 
can't  be  cheated,  and  a  gracious  spring  of  good  influence 
in  the  memory  of  your  children. 

California  is  sketched  out  by  the  Almighty  as  a  vast  can 
vas,  such  as  no  tribe  of  men  ever  received,  for  the  genius 
and  fidelity  of  colonists  to  fill  with  beauty.  One  of  our 
own  citizens  has  recently  indulged  an  artist's  dream  of  what 
the  State  may  look  like  a  hundred  years  hence.  He  sees  in 
vision  "long  ribbons  of  fields  stretching  to  Fort  Tejon— 
each  field  a  different  color — green  grapes,  brown  furrows, 
emerald  vines,  fringing  hedges  ;  grains  growing,  cream- 
colored  grains,  grains  aurate  and  russet;  houses  dotted 
along  like  violets  in  flower-beds  ;  houses  dotted  along  like 
dewdrops  in  clover  field  ;  houses  reaching  forth  like  mosses 
in  the  crystal  brook  ;  houses  clumped,  houses  grouped, 
hamlets  modest,  hamlets  blooming  and  luxuriant  like  gor 
geous  creepers  ;  villages  with  spires,  towns  with  burnished 
domes  goldened  by  the  sun,  and  silvered  by  the  moon  ; 
cities  with  minarets,  cities  with  columns,  cities  with  tall 
needle  chimneys  pouring  up  to  God  the  frankincense  of  la 
bor  ;  terraced  foot-hills  laughing  with  generous  villas,  slop 
ing  forelands  alive  with  herds  ;  swelling  mounds  nestling 
with  vines,  oval  knolls  crowned  with  festoons  of  fruit  blos 
soms,  breathing  sweet  perfume  to  the  sky ;  mountain  gorges 
rolling  out  metals,  mountain  peaks  staring  at  opposite 
peaks  from  bold-faced  palaces,  mountain  rivulets  murmur 
ing  to  trellised  rose-hidden  cottages,  mountain  vales  creep 
ing  away  to  love  God  in  dreamy  repose." 

This  gorgeous  rhetoric  from  the  pen  of  your  gifted  towns 
man,  Rev.  Mr.  Anderson,  may  be  the  cool  prose  of  1962. 
Every  wise  farmer  and  gardener  will  help  to  make  it  so.  It 
should  make  hearts  swell  with  sacred  pride  to  know  that 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  121 

this  generation  can  contribute  to  such  a  future  and  insure 
to  our  posterity  a  land  in  which  the  snow  of  the  Sierra  and 
of  Shasta  shall  emboss  and  crown  such  magnificence.  And 
then  not  only  may  every  California  farmer  sit  under  his  own 
vine  and  fig-tree,  but  every  Californian  may  drink  tea 
plucked  and  cured  under  his  own  sky  ;  may  grind  coffee 
freely  from  an  Arabia  at  his  doors ;  may  sweeten  it  with 
sugar  landed  from  no  ship  that  has  ever  ventured  beyond 
the  Golden  Gate  ;  may  take  rice  with  it  raised  in  our  tules  ; 
may  see  the  cotton  for  his  household  baled  in  his  own 
county —not  by  slave  labor — and  sped  for  weaving  to  Cali 
fornia  mills  ;  may  buy  his  linen  stamped  with  the  marks 
also  of  domestic  produce  and  skill ;  may  purchase  silks  on 
which  no  duty  is  paid  to  a  custom-house  ;  and  may  smoke, 
in  gratitude  for  his  luxuries,  tobacco  raised  in  the  Virginia 
within  our  own  bounds. 

If  we  are  faithful  to  our  duties,  in  1962  the  millions  that 
shall  live  here,  can  sing  with  new  meaning  the  oldpassover 
song  of  Palestine  :  — 

"  Thou  crownest  the  year  with  thy  goodness  ; 
Thy  footsteps  drop  fruitfulness ; 
They  drop  it  upon  the  pastures  of  the  wilderness, 
And  the  hills  are  girded  Avith  gladness. 
The  pastures  are  clothed  with  flocks, 
And  the  valleys  are  covered  with  corn : 
They  shout — yea,  they  sing  for  joy. 


MARK    TWAIN  S     DESCRIPTION     OF     THE     AZORE     ISLANDS. 


3  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  10th  of  June, 
we  were  awakened  and  notified  that  the  Azore 
Islands  were  in  sight.  I  had  only  been  in  bed 
an  hour  and  a  half,  and  did  not  take  any  inter 
est  in  the  islands.  But  another  persecutor 
came,  and  then  another,  and  another,  and  finally,  believing 
that  the  general  enthusiasm  would  permit  no  one  to  slum- 


122  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

ber  in  peace,  I  got  up  and  went  sleepily  on  deck.  It  was 
5-J  o'clock,  and  a  raw,  blustering  morning.  The  passengers 
were  huddled  about  the  smoke-stacks  and  fortified  behind 
ventilators,  and  all  were  wrapped  in  wintery  costumes,  and 
looking  sleepy  and  unhappy  in  the  pitiless  gale  and  the 
drenching  spray.  The  island  in  sight  was  Flores.  It  seemed 
only  a  mountain  of  mud  standing  up  out  of  the  dull  mists 
of  the  sea.  But  as  we  bore  down  upon  it,  the  sun  came 
out  and  made  it  a  beautiful  picture.  It  was  a  mass  of  green 
farms  and  meadows  that  swelled  up  to  a  height  of  1,500 
feet,  and  mingled  its  upper  outlines  with  the  clouds.  It 
was  ribbed  with  sharp,  steep  ridges,  and  cloven  with  nar 
row  canons,  and  here  and  there  on  the  heights,  rocky 
upheavals  shaped  themselves  into  mimic  battlements  and 
castles,  and  out  of  rifted  clouds  came  broad  shafts  of  sun 
light,  that  painted  summit,  and  slope,  and  glen,  with  bands 
of  fire,  and  left  belts  of  somber  shade  between  them — the 
aurora  borealis  of  the  frozen  pole  exiled  to  a  summer  land. 
We  skirted  around  two-thirds  of  the  island,  four  miles  from 
shore,  and  all  the  opera-glasses  in  the  ship  were  called  into 
requisition  to  settle  disputes  as  to  whether  mossy  spots  on 
the  uplands  were  groves  of  trees  or  groves  of  weeds,  or 
whether  the  white  villages  down  by  the  sea  were  really 
villages  or  only  the  clustering  tombstones  of  cemeteries. 
Finally,  we  stood  to  sea  and  bore  away  for  San  Miguel,  and 
Flores  shortly  became  a  dome  of  mud  again,  and  sank  down 
among  the  masts  and  disappeared.  But  to  many  a  sea- sick 
passenger  it  was  good  to  see  the  green  hills  again,  and  all 
were  more  cheerful  after  the  episode  than  anybody  could 
have  expected  them  to  be,  considering  how  sinfully  early 
they  had  gotten  up. 

But  we  had  to  change  our  notions  about  San  Miguel,  for 
a  storm  came  up,  toward  noon,  that  so  pitched  and  tossed 
the  vessel  that  common  sense  dictated  a  run  for  shelter. 
Therefore  we  steered  for  the  nearest  island  of  the  group — 
Fayal  (the  people  there  pronounced  it  Fy-all,  and  put  the 
accent  on  the  first  syllable).  We  anchored  in  the  open 
roadstead  of  Horta,  half  a  mile  from  the  shore.  The  town 
has  8,000  to  10,000  inhabitants.  Its  snow-white  houses  nes- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  123 

tie  cosily  in  the  sea  of  fresh  green  vegetation,  and  no  village 
could  look  prettier  or  more  attractive.  It  sits  in  the  lap  of 
an  amphitheater  of  hills  which  are  from  300  to  700  feet  high, 
and  carefully  cultivated  clear  to  their  summits — not  a  foot 
of  soil  left  idle.  Every  farm,  and  every  acre,  is  cut  up  into 
little  square  inclosures  by  stone  walls,  whose  duty  it  is  to 
protect  the  growing  products  from  the  destructive  gales  that 
blow  there.  These  hundreds  of  green  squares,  marked  by 
their  black  lava  walls,  make  the  hills  look  like  vast  checker 
boards. 

The  islands  belong  to  Portugal,  and  every  thing  in  Fayal 
has  a  Portugese  characteristic  about  it.  But  more  of  that 
anon.  A  swarm  of  swarthy,  noisy,  lying,  shoulder-shrug 
ging,  gesticulating  Portuguese  boatmen,  with  brass  rings  in 
their  ears,  and  fraud  in  their  hearts,  climbed  the  ship's  sides, 
and  various  parties  of  us  contracted  with  them  to  take  us 
ashore  at  twenty-five  cents  a  head — silver  coin  of  any  coun 
try.  We  landed  under  the  walls  of  a  little  fort  armed  with 
batteries  of  twelve  and  eighty-two  pounders,  which  Horta 
considered  a  most  formidable  institution,  but  if  we  were 
ever  to  get  after  it  with  one  of  our  turreted  monitors,  they 
would  have  to  move  it  out  in  the  country  if  they  wanted  it 
where  they  could  go  and  find  it  again  when  they  needed  it. 
The  group  on  the  pier  was  a  rusty  one — men  and  women,  and 
boys  and  girls,  all  ragged,  and  bare-footed,  and  uncombed, 
and  dirty,  and  by  instinct,  education,  and  profession,  beggars. 
They  trooped  after  us,  and  never  more,  while  we  tarried  in 
Fayal,  did  we  get  rid  of  them.  We  walked  up  the  middle 
of  the  principal  street,  and  these  vermin  surrounded  us  on 
all  sides,  and  glared  upon  us  ;  and  every  moment  excited 
couples  shot  ahead  of  the  gang  to  get  a  good  look  back,  just 
as  village  boys  do  when  they  accompany  the  elephant  on 
his  advertising  trip  from  street  to  street.  It  was  very  flat 
tering  for  me  to  be  part  of  the  material  for  such  a  sensation. 
Presently  an  old  woman,  with' a  fashionable  Portuguese 
hood  on,  approached  me.  This  hood  is  of  thick,  blue  cloth, 
attached  to  a  cloak  of  the  same  stuff,  and  is  a  marvel  of 
ugliness.  It  stands  up  high,  and  spreads  far  abroad,  and  is 
unfathomably  deep.  It  fits  like  a  circus  tent,  and  a 


124  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

woman's  head  is  hidden  away  in  it  like  the  man's  who 
prompts  the  singers  from  his  tin  shed  in  the  stage  of  an 
opera.  There  is  no  particle  of  trimming  about  this  mon 
strous  capote,  as  they  call  it— it  is  just  a  plain,  ugly,  dead- 
blue  mass  of  sail,  and  a  woman  can't  go  within  eight  points 
of  the  wind  with  one  of  them  on  ;  she  has  got  to  go  before 
the  wind  or  not  all.  The  general  style  of  the  capote  is  the 
same  in  all  the  islands,  and  will  remain  so  for  the  next 
10,000  years,  but  each  island  shapes  its  capotes  just  enough 
differently  from  the  others  to  enable  an  observer  to  tell  at  a 
glance  what  particular  island  a  lady  hails  from.  Well,  as 
we  came  along  we  overhauled  a  bent,  wrinkled,  and  un 
speakably  homely  old  hag,  with  her  capote  standing  high 
aloft.  She  was  becalmed ;  or  rather,  she  was  laying-to, 
around  a  corner,  waiting  for  the  wind  to  change.  When 
she  saw  me  she  drifted  out  and  held  out  her  hand.  Such 
friendliness  in  a  strange  land  touched  me,  and  I  seized  it. 
I  shook  it  cordially,  and  said  :— 

"Madame,  I  do  not  know  your  name,  but  this  act  has 
graven  your — your — peculiar  features  upon  my  heart,  and 
there  they  shall  remain  while  that  heart  continues  to 
throb." 

She  drew  her  hand  away  and  said  something  which  I  could 
not  understand,  and  then  kissed  her  palm  to  me  and  court- 
sied.  I  blushed  and  said  : — 

"  Madame,  these  attentions  can  not  but  be  flattering  to  me, 
but  it  must  not  be— alas,  it  can  not  be— I  am  another's!" 
(I  had  to  lie  a  little,  because  I  was  getting  into  a  close 
place.) 

She  kissed  her  hand,  again  and  murmured  sweet  words  of 
affection,  but  I  was  firm.  I  said  :— 

"  Away,  woman — tempt  me  not !  Your  seductive  bland 
ishments  are  wasted  upon  one  whose  heart  is  far  hence  in 
the  bright  land  of  America.  The  jewel  is  gone — you  be 
hold  here  naught  save  the  empty  casket — and  empty  it 
shall  remain  till  grim  necessity  drives  me  to  fill  the  aching 
void  with  vile  flesh,  and  drink,  and  cabbage.  Avaunt, 
temptress  !" 

But  she  would  not  avaunt.  She  kissed  her  hand  repeatedly, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  125 

and  courtsied  over  and  over  again.  I  reasoned  with  myself. 
This  unhappy  woman  loves  me  ;  I  can  not  reciprocate  ;  I  can 
not  love  a  foreigner  ;  I  can  not  love  a  foreigner  as  homely  as 
she  is  ;  if  I  could,  I  would  dig  her  out  of  that  capote  and  take 
her  to  my  sheltering  arms.  I  can  not  love  her,  but  this  wildly 
beautiful  affection  she  has  conceived  for  me  must  not  go  un 
rewarded — it  shall  not  go  unrewarded.  And  so  I  said,  ' '  I 
will  read  to  her  my  poetical  paraphrase  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence." 

But  all  the  crowd  said,  "No  ;  shame,  shame,  shame  •  the 
poor  old  woman  hasn't  done  any  thing  !" 

And  they  gave  the  old  hag  some  Portuguese  pennies  like 
shuffle-board  blocks,  and  hustled  her  away,  averring  that 
she  w^as  begging,  and  not  making  love  ;  and  thus,  by  the 
well-meaning  stupidity  of  my  comrades,  I  was  prevented 
from  implanting  a  sweet  memory  in  the  soul  of  one  who 
may  now  go  down  to  the  grave  with  no  sacred  thing  upon 
the  altar  of  her  heart  but  the  ashes  of  a  hopeless  passion — 
and  yet  a  stanza  or  two  would  have  made  her  so  happy  ! 

Speaking  of  those  prodigious  Portuguese  pennies  reminds 
me  that  it  takes  1,000  reis  (pronounced  rays)  to  make  $1, 
and  that  all  financial  estimates  are  made  out  in  reis.  We 
did  not  know  this  until  after  we  had  found  it  out,  and  we 
found  it  out  through  Blucher.  Blucher  said  he  was  so 
happy  and  so  grateful  to  be  on  solid  land  once  more,  and 
that  he  wanted  to  give  a  feast ;  said  he  had  heard  it  was  a 
cheap  land,  and  he  was  bound  to  have  a  grand  banquet.  He 
invited  nine  of  us,  and  we  ate  an  excellent  dinner  at  the  prin 
cipal  hotel.  In  the  midst  of  the  jollity,  produced  by  good 
cigars,  good  wine,  and  passable  anecdotes,  the  landlord  pre 
sented  his  bill.  Blucher  glanced  at  it,  and  his  countenance 
fell.  He  took  another  look,  to  assure  him  that  his  senses  had 
not  deceived  him,  and  then  read  the  items  aloud,  in  a  falter 
ing  voice,  while  the  roses  in  his  cheeks  turned  to  ashes  : — 

'' '  Ten  dinners,  at  600  reis,  6,000  reis  ?'     Ruin  and  deso 
lation. 

44  'Twenty-five  cigars,  at  100  reis,  2,500  reis  !'  Oh,  my 
sainted  mother ! 

"  '  Eleven  bottles  of  wine,  at  1,200  reis,  13,200  reis.'     Be 


126  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

with  us  all !  '  Total,  21,700  reis  !'  Great  Caesar's  ghost, 
there  ain't  money  enough  in  the  ship  to  pay  that  bill! 
Go,  leave  me  to  my  misery,  boys,  I'm  a  ruined  com 
munity." 

I  think  it  was  the  blankest-looking  party  I  ever  saw. 
Nobody  could  say  a  word.  It  was  as  if  every  soul  had  sud 
denly  been  stricken  dumb.  Wine-glasses  descended  slowly 
to  the  table,  their  contents  untasted.  Cigars  dropped  un 
noted  from  nerveless  ringers.  Each  man  sought  his  neigh 
bor's  eye,  but  found  in  it  no  ray  of  hope,  no  encourage 
ment.  At  last  the  fearful  silence  was  broken.  The  shadow 
of  a  desperate  resolve  settled  down  upon  Blucher'  o  counte 
nance  like  a  cloud,  and  he  rose  up  and  said  :  ' '  Landlord, 
this  is  a  wretched,  mean  swindle,  and  I'll  never,  never 
stand  it.  Here's  $150,  sir,  and  it's  all  you'll  get — I'll  swim 
in  blood,  sir,  before  I'll  pay  a  cent  more  !" 

Our  spirits  rose  and  the  landlord's  fell — at  least  we 
thought  so  ;  he  was  confused  at  any  rate,  notwithstanding 
he  had  not  understood  a  word  that  had  been  said.  He 
glanced  from  the  little  pile  of  gold  pieces  to  Blucher  several 
times,  and  then  went  out.  He  must  have  visited  an  Ameri 
can,  for,  when  he  returned,  he  brought  back  his  bill  trans 
lated  into  a  language  that  a  Christian  could  understand — 
thus : — 

10  dinners,  6,000   reis,  or $6  00 

25  cigars,  2,500  reis,  or 2  50 

11  bottles  of  wine,  13,200  reis,  or 13  20 

Total,  21,700  reis,  or $21  70 

Happiness  reigned  once  more  in  Blucher' s  dinner-party. 
More  refreshments  were  ordered. 

I  think  the  Azores  must  be  very  little  known  in  America. 
Out  of  our  whole  ship' s  company  there  was  not  a  solitary 
individual  who  knew  any  thing  whatever  about  them. 
Some  of  the  party,  well  read  concerning  most  other  lands, 
had  no  other  information  about  the  Azores  than  that  they 
were  a  group  of  nine  or  ten  small  islands  far  out  in  the 
Atlantic,  something  more  than  half  way  between  New  York 
and  Gibraltar.  That  was  all.  These  considerations  move 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  127 

me  to  put  in  a  paragraph  of  dry  facts,  just  here,  which  I 
might  not  venture  to  if  I  were  writing  about  worn-out  and 
written-out  Europe. 

The  community  is  eminently  Portuguese — that  is  to  say, 
it  is  slow,  poor,  shiftless,  sleepy,  and  lazy.  There  is  a  civil 
government  appointed  by  the  King  of  Portugal,  and  a  mili 
tary  governor,  who  can  assume  supreme  control  and  sus 
pend  the  civil  government  at  his  pleasure.  The  islands 
contain  a  population  of  about  200,000,  almost  entirely  Por 
tuguese.  Every  thing  is  staid  and  settled,  for  the  country 
was  100  years  old  when  Columbus  discovered  America. 
The  principal  crop  is  corn,  and  they  raise  it  and  grind  it 
just  as  their  great-great-great-grandfathers  did.  They  plow 
with  a  board  slightly  shod  with  iron  ;  their  trifling  little 
harrows  are  drawn  by  men  and  women ;  small  wind-mills 
grind  the  corn,  ten  bushels  a  day,  and  there  is  one  assistant 
superintendent  to  feed  the  mill  and  a  general  superintend 
ent  to  stand  by  and  keep  him  from  going  to  sleep.  When 
the  wind  changes  they  hi,tch  on  some  donkeys,  and  actually 
turn  around  the  whole  upper  half  of  the  mill  till  the  sails 
are  in  proper  position,  instead  of  fixing  the  concern  so 
that  the  sails  could  be  moved  instead  of  the  mill.  Oxen 
tread  the  wheat  from  the  ear,  after  the  fashion  prevalent  in 
the  time  of  Methuselah.  There  is  not  a  wheelbarrow  in 
the  land — they  carry  every  thing  on  their  heads,  or  on 
donkeys,  or  in  a  'wicker-bodied  cart,  whose  wheels  are 
solid  blocks  of  wood,  and  whose  axles  turn  with  the  wheels. 
There  is  not  a  modern  plow  in  the  islands,  or  a  thrashing 
machine.  All  attempts  to  introduce  them  have  failed.  The 
good  Catholic  Portuguese  crossed  himself,  and  prayed  God 
to  shield  him  from  all  blasphemous  desire  to  know  more 
than  his  father  did  before  him.  The  climate  is  mild  ;  they 
never  have  snow  or  ice,  and  I  saw  no  chimneys  in  the  town. 
The  donkeys  and  the  men,  women1,  and  children  of  a  family, 
all  eat  and  sleep  in  the  same  room,  and  are  unclean,  are 
ravaged  by  vermin,  and  are  truly  happy.  The  people  lie 
and  cheat  the  stranger,  and  are  desperately  ignorant,  and 
have  hardly  any  reverence  for  their  dead.  That  latter  trait 
shows  how  little  better  they  are  than  the  donkeys  they  eat 


128  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

and  sleep  with.  The  only  well-dressed  Portuguese  in  the 
camp  are  the  three  or  four  well-to-do  families,  the  Jesuit 
priests,  and  the  soldiers  of  the  little  garrison.  The  wages  of 
a  laborer  are  20  to  24  cents  a  day,  and  those  of  a  good 
mechanic  about  twice  as  much.  They  count  it  in  reis  at  a 
thousand  to  a  dollar,  and  this  makes  them  rich  and  con 
tented.  Fine  grapes  used  to  grow  on  the  islands  and  an  ex 
cellent  wine  was  made  and  exported.  But  a  disease  killed 
all  the  vines  fifteen  years  ago,  and  since  that  time  no  wine 
has  been  made.  The  islands  being  wholly  of  volcanic  origin, 
the  soil  is  necessarily  very  rich.  Nearly  every  foot  of 
ground  is  under  cultivation,  and  two  or  three  crops  a  year 
of  each  article  are  produced  ;  but  nothing  is  exported  save 
a  few  oranges — chiefly  to  England. 

The  mountains  on  some  of  the  islands  are  very  high. 
We  sailed  along  the  shore  of  the  Island  of  Pico,  under  a 
stately  green  pyramid  that  rose  up  with  one  unbroken 
sweep  from  our  very  feet  to  an  altitude  of  7, 613  feet,  and 
thrust  its  summit  above  the  white  clouds  like  an  island 
adrift  in  a  fog. —Cor.  N.  Y.  Tribune,  June,  1867. 


AN    ACCOUNT    OP    THE     ABORIGINAL    INHABITANTS     OF    CALIFORNIA,    BY 
JACOB  BAEGERT,  GERMAN  JESUIT  MISSIONARY,  RESIDENT    1751-1768. 


soon  as  the  young  California!!  finds  a  partner, 
the  marriage  follows  immediately  afterward  ; 
and  the  girls  go  sometimes  so  far  as  to  demand 
impetuously  a  husband  from  the  missionary, 
even  before  they  are  twelve  years  old,  which  is 
their  legitimate  age  for  marrying.  In  all  the  Missions,  how 
ever,  only  one  excepted,  the  number  of  men  was  considera 
bly  greater  than  that  of  the  females. 

Matrimonial  engagements  are  concluded  without  much 
forethought  or  scruple,  and  little  attention  is  paid  to  the 
morals  or  qualities  of  the  parties ;  and,  to  confess  the  truth, 
there  is  hardly  any  difference  among  them  in  these  respects  ; 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  129 

and,  as  far  as  good  sense,  virtue,  and  riches  are  concerned, 
they  are  always  sure  to  marry  their  equals,  following  thus 
the  old  maxim  :  Si  vis  nubere,  nube part.  It  happens  very 
often  that  near  relations  want  to  join  in  wedlock,  and  their 
engagements  have,  therefore,  to  be  frustrated,  such  cases 
excepted  in  which  the  impedimerduin  affinitatls  can  be 
•removed  by  a  dispensation  from  the  proDer  authorities. 

They  do  not  seem  to  marry  exactly  for  the  same  reasons 
that  induce  civilized  people  to  enter  into  that  state ;  they 
simply  want  to  have  a  partner,  and  the  husband,  besides, 
a  servant  whom  he  can  command,  although  his  authority 
in  this  respect  is  rather  limited,  for  the  women  are  some 
what  independent,  and  not  much  inclined  to  obey  their 
lords.  Although  they  are  now  duly  married  according  to 
the  rites  of  the  Catholic  Church,  nothing  is  done  on  their 
part  to  solemnize  the  act ;  none  of  the  parents  or  other  rela 
tions  and  friends  are  present,  and  no  wedding  feast  is  served 
up,  unless  the  missionary,  instead  of  receiving  his  marriage 
fees,  or  jura  stolce,  presents  them  with  a  piece  of  meat,  or  a 
quantity  of  Indian  corn.  Whenever  I  joined  a  couple  in 
matrimony,  it  took  considerable  time  before  the  bridegroom 
succeeded  in  putting  the  wedding  ring  on  the  right  finger 
of  his  future  wife.  As  soon  as  the  ceremony  is  over,  the 
new  couple  start  off  in  different  directions  in  search  of  food? 
just  as  if  they  were  not  more  to  each  other  to-day  than  they 
were  yesterday ;  and  in  the  same  manner  they  act  in 
future,  providing  separately  for  their  support,  sometimes 
without  living  together  for  weeks,  and  without  knowing 
any  thing  of  their  partner's  abiding-place. 

Before  they  were  baptized  each  man  took  as  many  wives 
as  he  liked,  and  if  there  were  several  sisters  in  a  family  he 
married  them  altogether.  The  son-in-law  was  not  allowed, 
for  some  time,  to  look  into  the  face  of  his  mother-in-law  or 
his  wife's  next  female  relations,  but  had  to  step  aside,  or  to 
hide  himself,  when  these  women  were  present.  Yet  they 
did  not  pay  much  attention  to  consanguinity,  and  only  a 
few  years  since  one  of  them  counted  his  own  daughter  (as 
he  believed)  among  the  number  of  his  wives.  They  met 
without  any  formalities,  and  their  vocabulary  did  not  even 


130  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

contain  the  words  "to  marry,"  which  is  expressed  at  the 
present  day  in  the  Waicuri  language  by  the  paraphrase 
tikere  undiri — that  is,  "to  bring  the  arms  or  hands  to 
gether."  They  had,  and  still  use,  a  substitute  for  the  word 
"husband,"  but  the  etymological  meaning  of  that  expres 
sion  implies  an  intercourse  with  woman  in  general. 

They  lived,  in  fact,  before  the  establishment  of  the  Mission 
in  their  country,  in  utter  licentiousness,  and  adultery  was 
committed  by  every  one  without  shame  and  without  any 
fear,  the  feeling  of  jealousy  being  unknown  to  them. 
Neighboring  tribes  visited  each  other  very  often  only  for 
the  purpose  of  spending  some  days  in  open  debauchery, 
and  during  such  times  a  general  prostitution  prevailed. 
Would  to  God  that  the  admonitions  and  instructions  of  those 
who  converted  these  people  to  Christianity  and  established 
lawful  marriages  among  them,  had  also  induced  them  to 
desist  entirely  from  these  evil  practices !  Yet  they  deserve 
pity  rather  than  contempt,  for  their  manner  of  living  to 
gether  engenders  vice,  and  their  sense  of  morality  is  not 
'  strong  enough  to  prevent  them  from  yielding  to  the  tempta 
tions  to  which  they  are  constantly  exposed. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  this  book  I  have  already  spoken  of 
the  scanty  population  of  this  country.  It  is  certain  that 
many  of  their  women  are  barren,  and  that  a  great  number 
of  them  bear  no  more  than  one  child.  Only  a  few,  out  of 
one  or  two  hundred,  bring  forth  eight  or  ten  times,  and  if 
such  is  really  the  case,  it  happens  very  seldom  that  one  or 
two  of  the  children  arrive  at  a  mature  age.  I  baptized,  in 
succession,  seven  children  of  a  young  woman,  yet  I  had  to 
bury  them  all  before  one  of  them  had  reached  its  third 
year,  and  when  I  was  about  to  leave  the  country  I  recom 
mended  to  the  woman  to  dig  a  grave  for  the  eighth  child, 
with  which  she  was  pregnant  at  the  time.  The  unmarried 
of  both  sexes  and  the  children  generally  make  a  smaller 
group  than  the  married  and  widowed. 

The  California  women  lie  in  without  difficulty,  and  with 
out  needing  any  assistance.  If  the  child  is  born  at  some 
distance  from  the  Mission  they  carry  it  thither  themselves 
on  the  same  day,  in  order  to  have  it  baptized,  not  minding 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  131 

a  walk  of  two  or  more  leagues.  Yet,  that  many  infants  die 
among  them  is  not  surprising  ;  on  the  contrary  it  would  be 
a  wonder  if  a  great  number  remained  alive.  For,  when  the 
poor  child  first  sees  the  light  of  day,  there  is  no  other  cradle 
provided  for  it  but  the  hard  soil,  or  the  still  harder  shell  of 
a  turtle,  in  which  the  mother  places  it,  without  much  cover 
ing,  and  drags  it  about  wherever  she  goes.  And  in  order 
to  be  unencumbered,  and  enabled  to  use  her  limbs  with 
greater  freedom  while  running  in  the  fields,  she  will  leave 
it  sometimes  in  charge  of  some  old  woman,  and  thus  deprive 
the  poor  creature  for  ten  or  more  hours  of  its  natural  nour 
ishment.  As  soon  as  the  child  is  a  few  months  old  the 
mother  places  it,  perfectly  naked,  astraddle  on  her  shoul 
ders,  its  legs  hanging  down  on  both  sides  in  front,  and  it 
has  consequently  to  learn  how  to  ride  before  it  can  stand  on 
its  feet.  In  this  guise  the  mother  roves  about  all  day, 
exposing  her  helpless  charge  to  the  hot  rays  of  the  sun  and 
the  chilly  winds  that  sweep  over  the  inhospitable  country. 
The  food  of  the  child,  till  it  cuts  its  teeth,  consists  only  in 
the  milk  of  the  mother,  and  if  that  is  wanting  or  insufficient, 
there  is  rarely  another  woman  to  be  found  that  would  be 
willing,  or,  perhaps,  in  the  proper  condition,  to  take  pity  on 
the  poor  starving  being.  I  can  not  say  that  the  Californian 
women  are  too  fond  of  their  children,  and  some  of  them 
may  even  consider  the  loss  of  one  as  a  relief  from  burden, 
especially  if  they  have  already  some  small  children.  I  did 
not  see  many  Californian  mothers  who  caressed  their  chil 
dren  much  while  they  lived,  or  tore  their  hair  when  they 
died,  although  a  kind  of  dry  weeping  is  not  wanting  on 
such  occasions.  The  father  is  still  more  insensible,  and 
does  not  even  look  at  his  (or  at  least  his  wife's)  child  as 
long  as  it  is  small  and  helpless. 

Nothing  causes  the  Californians  less  trouble  and  care 
than  the  education  of  their  children,  which  is  merely  con 
fined  to  a  short  period,  and  ceases  as  soon  as  the  latter  are 
capable  of  making  a  living  for  themselves — that  is,  to  catch 
mice  and  to  kill  snakes.  If  the  young  Californians  have  once 
acquired  sufficient  skill  and  strength  to  follow  these  pur 
suits,  it  is  all  the  same  to  them  whether  they  have  parents 


132  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

or  not.  Nothing  is  done  "by  these  in  the  way  of  admonition 
or  instruction,  nor  do  they  set  an  example  worthy  to  be 
imitated  "by  their  offspring.  The  children  do  what  they 
please,  without  fearing  reprimand  or  punishment,  however 
disorderly  and  wicked  their  conduct  may  be.  It  would  be 
well  if  the  parents  did  not  grow  angry  when  their  children 
are  now  and  then  slightly  chastised  for  gross  misdemeanor 
by  order  of  the  missionary ;  but,  instead  of  bearing  with 
patience  such  wholesome  correction  of  their  little  sons  and 
daughters,  they  take  great  offense  and  become  enraged, 
especially  the  mothers,  who  will  scream  like  furies,  tear  out 
their  hair,  beat  their  naked  breasts  with  a  stone,  and  lacer 
ate  their  heads  with  a  piece  of  wood  or  bone  till  the  blood 
flows,  as  I  have  frequently  witnessed  on  such  occasions. 

The  consequence  is,  that  the  children  follow  their  own 
inclinations  without  any  restraint,  and  imitate  all  the  bad 
habits  and  practices  of  their  equals,  or  still  older  persons, 
without  the  slightest  apprehension  of  being  blamed  by  their 
fathers  and  mothers,  even  if  these  should  happen  to  detect 
them  in  the  act  of  committing  the  most  disgraceful  deeds. 
The  young  Californians  who  live  in  the  Missions  commence 
roaming  about  as  soon  as  mass  is  over,  and  those  that  spend 
their  time  in  the  fields  go  wherever,  and  with  whomsoever, 
they  please,  not  seeing  for  many  days  the  faces  of  their 
parents,  who,  in  their  turn,  do  not  manifest  the  slightest 
concern  about  their  children,  nor  make  any  inquiries  after 
them.  These  are  disadvantages  which  the  missionary  has 
no  power  of  amending,  and  such  being  the  case,  it  is  easy 
to  imagine  how  little  he  can  do  by  instruction,  exhortation, 
and  punishment,  toward  improving  the  moral  condition  of 
these  young  natives. 

Heaven  may  enlighten  the  Californians,  and  preserve 
Europe,  and  especially  Germany,  from  such  a  system  of 
education,  which  coincides,  in  part,  with  the  plan  proposed 
by  that  ungodly  visionary,  J.  J.  Rousseau,  in  his  "Emile," 
and  which  is  also  recommended  by  some  other  modern 
philosophers  of  the  same  tribe.  If  their  designs  are  carried 
out,  education,  so  far  as  faith,  religion,  and  the  fear  of  God 
are  concerned,  is  not  to  be  commenced  before  the  eighteenth 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  133 

or  twentieth  year,  which,  if  viewred  in  the  proper  light, 
simply  means  to  adopt  the  Californian  method,  and  to  bring 
up  youth  without  any  education  at  all. 


HOW   THE    OREGON    TERRITORY    WAS    SAVED    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

r 

E  presume  it  is  not  generally  known  to  our 
citizens  on  the  Pacific  coast,  nor  to  many 
people  in  the  Atlantic  States,  how  near  we 
came  to  losing,  through  executive  incompe 
tence,  our  just  title  to  the  whole  immense 
region  lying  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
Neither  has  due  honor  been  accorded  to  the  brave  and 
patriotic  man  through  whose  herculean  exertions  this  great 
loss  and  sacrifice  wTas  prevented. 

The  facts  were  briefly  and  freshly  brought  out  during  the 
recent  meeting  at  Pittsburg  of  the  "American  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions,"  in  the  course  of  an 
elaborate  paper,  read  by  Mr.  Treat,  one  of  the  secretaries 
of  the  Board,  on  the  "  Incidental  Results  of  Missions." 

In  the  year  1836,  the  American  Board  undertook  to  estab 
lish  a  mission  among  the  Indians  beyond  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains.  Two  missionaries,  Rev.  Mr.  Spalding  arid  Dr. 
Whitman,  with  their  wives — the  first  white  women  who 
had  ever  made  that  perilous  journey — passed  over  the 
mountains  with  incredible  toil,  to  reach  Oregon,  the  field 
of  their  labor.  After  remaining  there  for  a  few  years,  Dr. 
Whitman  began  to  understand  the  object  of  the  misrepre 
sentations  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  He  saw,  contrary 
to  the  reiterated  public  statements  of  that  company  :— 

1.  That  the  land  was  rich  in  minerals. 

2.  That  emigrants  could  cross  the  Rocky  Mountains  in 
wagons,  a  feat  which  they  had  constantly  asserted  to  be 
impossible. 

3.  That  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  was   planning  to 
secure  the  sole  occupancy  of  the  whole  of  that  country,  by 


134  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

obtaining  a  surrender  of  the  American  title  into  the  hands 
of  the  British  Government. 

Seeing  these  things,  but  not  knowing  how  very  near  the 
British  scheme  was  to  its  accomplishment,  Dr.  Whitman 
resolved,  at  every  hazard,  to  prevent  its  consummation. 
He  undertook,  in  1842,  to  make  a  journey  on  horseback  to 
Washington,  to  lay  the  whole  matter  clearly  before  our 
Government  by  personal  representations.  Being  a  man  of 
great  physical  strength  and  an  iron  constitution,  he  accom 
plished  the  long  and  perilous  journey,  and  reached  Wash 
ington  in  safety.  The  remainder  of  the  story  we  will  relate 
in  the  language  of  the  Boston  Congregationalist: — "  Reach 
ing  Washington,  he  sought  an  interview  with  President 
Tyler  and  Daniel  Webster,  then  Secretary  of  State,  and 
unfolded  to  them  distinctly  what  was  going  on.  Here  he 
learned  that  a  treaty  was  almost  ready  to  be  signed,  in 
which  all  this  Northwestern  Territory  was  to  be  given  up  to 
England,  and  we  were  to  have,  in  compensation,  greater 
facilities  in  catching  fish.  Dr.  Whitman  labored  to  con 
vince  Mr.  Webster  that  he  was  the  victim  of  false  represent 
ations  with  regard  to  the  character  of  the  region,  and  told 
him  that  he  intended  to  return  to  Oregon  with  a  train  of 
emigrants.  Mr.  Webster,  looking  him  full  in  the  eye, 
asked  him  if  he  would  pledge  himself  to  conduct  a  train 
of  emigrants  there  in  wagons.  He  promised  that  lie  would. 
Then,  said  Mr.  Webster,  this  treaty  shall  be  suppressed. 
Dr.  Whitman,  in  coming  on,  had  fixed  upon  certain  rally 
ing  points  where  emigrants  might  assemble  to  accompany 
him  on  his  return.  He  found  nearly  one  thousand  ready 
for  the  journey.  After  long  travel,  they  reached  Fort  Hall, 
a  British  military  station,  and  the  commandant  undertook 
to  frighten  the  emigrants  by  telling  them  that  it  was  not 
possible  for  them  to  go  through  with  wagons ;  but  Dr. 
Whitman  reassured  them,  and  led  them  through  to  the 
Columbia,  and  the  days  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Hudson' s 
Bay  Company  over  Oregon  were  numbered." — New  York 
Evening  Post,  November,  1§66. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  135 


RECIPES    FOR    MAKING    POETRY. 

LL  we  require  from  the  readers  of  the  MIRROR, 
in  making  use  of  the  following  recipes,  is  a 
sample  from  each  lot.  We  shall  not  "be  respons 
ible  for  the  material  wasted  in  fruitless  experi 
ments  : — 

To  maJce  Miltonic  Poetry. — Take  five  hundred  angels, 
one  thousand  devils  of  the  worst  hue,  one  Lucifer,  ten 
worlds,  two  suns,  ten  moons,  and  stars  to  equal,  twenty 
tons  of  saltpeter,  brimstone,  and  tar,  with  a  good  degree  of 
chloroform,  put  it  all  in  a  great  caldron,  over  a  fire  of 
white  heat,  and  when  sufficiently  conglomerated  put  a  live 
man  and  woman  in  it,  and  stir.  You  will  then  produce  the 
best  "  imitation  of  the  great  immortal"  ever  read.  Try  it, 
and  do  not  be  discouraged  if  you  do  not  succeed  at  first. 

To  be  a  Great  Dramatist. — Take  all  the  pride,  selfish 
ness,  and  hate,  villainy,  cowardice,  and  passion,  that  can  be 
had  in  poor  human  nature.  Then  take  thirty  beautiful 
maidens,  fifty  libertines,  from  the  Church  and  State,  ten 
dukes,  seven  cross  old  queens,  mix  thoroughly — then  get 
three  ghosts,  ten  goblins,  twenty  old  hags,  and  thirty 
witches,  tie  them  together  with  snakes  and  boa-constrictors ; 
let  them  seethe  and  boil  till  wanted — then  serve  to  suit, 
a  la  mode  Macbeth,  Hamlet,  Lear,  &c. 

To  be  a  Goldsmith. — Sell  all  your  cotton  shirts,  run  in 
debt  to  twenty  tailors,  owe  your  landlady,  then  crawl 
between  two  feather  beds,  and  while  you  are  waiting  for 
your  washerwoman  to  dry  your  only  suit,  fancy  yourself  a 
poet,  and  you  will  doubtless  write  a  description  of  a 
"  Village  Pastor"  that  will  astonisli  you. 

To  imitate  Gray. — This  is  very  simple,  and  we  advise  all 
to  try  it,  especially  young  ladies  given  to  "flights  of  fancy." 
Go  into  an  old  dilapidated  church,  lean  upon  the  broken 
windows  and  think  of  your  dead  grandfather,  and  grand 
mother,  and  all  their  ancestors.  Very  soon  you  will  produce 
by  far  a  better  elegy  than  the  original. 


136  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

To  be  a  Burns.  —  Strip  off  your  gold  chains  and  rings, 
shave  off  your  dainty  mustache,  put  on  a  pair  of  leather 
"brogans  with  clean  stockings,  a  pair  of  corduroy  "breeches, 
and  a  strong  wholesome  shirt,  and  on  the  whole  make  "a 
man  of  yourself;"  then  sit  in  your  cottage  door,  put  your 
head  in  your  wife's  lap  (if  you  have  one,  if  not  your  mother 
or  sister  will  do),  and  let  all  the  tender  and  holy  associa 
tions  and  impulses  of  your  nature  inspire  you,  and  if  you 
do  not  become  a  poet  you  ought  to. 

To  write  Byronic  Stanzas. — Get  a  barrel  of  tar,  a  hogs 
head  of  brandy,  a  hundred  gallons  of  ottar  of  roses,  one 
man  "  nobly  born,"  and  five  hundred  "  beautiful  women," 
let  them  simmer  together  with  a  gentle  mixture  of  sulphuric 
ether.  We  advise  all  honest  young  men  to  put  away  so 
unbecoming  a  thing  as  "manliness,"  and  adopt  the  above 
method. 

A  la  Tom  Moore.  — Get  five  hundred  swarms  of  the  best 
bees,  take  all  the  honey  they  can  make  in  a  thousand  years. 
Buy  all  the  perfumes  in  Turkey  ;  get  ten  thousand  pounds 
of  rose  leaves,  add  the  juice  of  all  the  oranges,  pomegranates, 
and  bananas  that  can  be  had,  now  and  then  some  of  the 
"pure  juice  of  the  grape,"  just  to  flavor,  and  if  this  does 
not  suit  the  taste  of  "  Poor  Tom"  himself,  try  one  hundred 
of  the  best  "Madeira,"  and  all  the  Peris  in  Christendom, 
and  out  of  it,  will  obey  your  call 

Much  other  valuable  instruction  might  be  given,  but  time 
will  not  permit,  and  therefore,  I  will  close  this  "valuable 
collection"  with  the  addition  of  a  single  one  I  had  well- 
nigh  forgotten — but  it  is  hardly  worth  the  trouble,  as  very 
few  will  wish  to  secure  it,  and  that  is— 

To  be  a  True  Genius — Do  not  maJte  afoot  of  yourself ! — 
San  Francisco  Mirror,  September  12,  1860. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  137 


CALIFORNIA    AVINES. 

Los  ANGELES,  July  2,  1866. 

IHADDEUS  STEVENS,  House  of  Representa 
tives,  Washington,  D.  C. — Dear  Sir  :  A  copy 
of  the  Daily  Congressional  Globe  of  May  22d, 
has  been  forwarded  me,  containing  the  debate  on 
the  imposition  of  internal  tax  on  native  wines. 
On  the  part  of  the  vine-growers  of  California  espe 
cially,  I  tender  you  their  lasting  gratitude  for  the  prompt, 
liberal,  and  wise  manner  in  which  you  defended  the  native 
wine  interest  of  our  country.  Your  words  :  "  Allow  these 
producers  to  go  on  for  the  present,  at  least,  without  any 
tax,  until  they  get  a  foothold,"  and  "I  hope,  therefore,  for 
the  present,  we  will  not  put  our  heavy  hand  on  this  infant, 
lest  it  should  become  deformed,"  are  words  worthy  of  a 
statesman,  and  will  remain  long  in  the  grateful  remembrance 
of  till  vine-producers.  It  was  in  this  wise  that  the  great 
Chaptal  spoke  to  the  French  Government  in  defense  of  the 
wine  interests  of  France  ;  and  what  would  France  be  to-day 
were  it  not  for  the  national  importance  that  the  annual 
production  of  a  thousand  millions  of  gallons  of  wine  give 
her,  increasing  day  by  day  her  wealth,  her  commerce,  and 
the  health  and  morality  of  her  people  ? 

The  greater  part  of  our  vast  country— but  more  especially 
the  Pacific  slope— abounds  with  soil  and  climate  congenial 
to  the  culture  of  the  grape,  which  is  its  natural  home, 
foreign  as  well  as  native.  And,  therefore,  all  classes  of 
wines  can  be  made  there,  more  particularly  the  potent 
wines,  like  Port,  Sherry,  and  Madeira,  in  greater  abundance 
and  of  as  good  quality  as  in  any  country.  The  wine  busi 
ness  emphatically  belongs  to  large  capital;  it  requires 
cumulative  investments  from  planting  the  vineyard,  build 
ing  cellars,  procuring  vessels,  the  necessary  appliances  for 
manufacture,  to  holding  the  wine  for  proper  maturity  and 
development  of  its  bouquet.  Adam  Smith  says  that  vine 
culture  is  the  most  profitable  of  all  agriculture,  yet  large 
capital  is  ever  loath  to  invest  in  any  enterprise  where  it 


138  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

can  not  see  an  immediate  return  of  profits.  More  so  in 
California  than  anywhere  else,  on  account  of  a  high  rate 
of  interest  and  labor.  The  development  of  this  great  na 
tional  "branch  of  industry  devolves  at  last  on  farmers  with 
ordinary  means,  who  not  only  need  but  merit  in  a  high 
degree  the  fostering  encouragement  of  a  wise  Government. 
These  farmers  are  struggling  for  a  " foothold"  for  a  wine 
interest  that  is  bound  to  become  greater  than  that  of  France. 
Why,  then,  should  the  Government  crush  and  "deform" 
this  infant,  that  in  time  must  grow  into  a  giant  of  agricul 
ture  and  commerce,  and  a  promoter  of  national  wealth  and 
morality  \ 

The  hygienic  influences  of  wine-drinking  on  public 
health,  and  its  moral  tendencies,  should  be  well  considered 
and  understood  by  our  legislators.  Alcohol  is  chemically 
a  solvent,  a  waster  of  the  animal  tissues,  and  in  the  stomach 
undergoes  no  change  by  digestion,  as  food  substances  do, 
but  is  carried  through  the  circulation  in  its  normal  condi 
tion,  disintegrating,  as  it  were,  the  human  organization  and 
producing  general  irritation.  Yet  alcohol  has  its  beneficial 
influences  and  uses  in  the  animal  economy,  when  taken  with 
due  moderation  and  in  a  convenient  and  rational  form. 

A  certain  amount  of  alcohol,  or  a  certain  amount  of  fatty 
substances,  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the  human  body  to 
maintain  combustion  in  the  lungs.  In  order  to  produce 
animal  heat  a  greater  degree  of  combustion  is  required  in  a 
cold  than  in  a  warm  temperature  ;  hence  the  inhabitants  of 
high  latitudes  are  obliged  to  consume  vast  quantities  of 
fatty  and  oily  substances,  like  blubber,  in  the  absence  of 
alcohol,  to  sustain  respiration  and  life,  whilst  those  who 
inhabit  mild  climates  use  proportionably  less  of  these  sub 
stances,  because  the  radiation  of  the  heat  of  the  body  is  less. 

Human  food  can  be  divided  into  two  classes  :  First — 
Such  as  serve  to  supply  the  organs  of  respiration  with  fuel 
and  that  form  fat  in  the  body ;  for  example,  all  kinds  of 
sugar,  starch,  gum,  beer,  wine,  bread,  potatoes,  rice,  sago, 
arrowroot,  and  some  vegetables  and  fruit,  so  far  as  the  latter 
contain  starch  and  gum.  Second — Such  as  serve  to  produce 
the  plastic  substances  of  the  body,  as  blood,  flesh,  and 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  139 

muscles ;  for  example,  meat,  cheese,  eggs,  and  the  gluten 
of  cereals,  especially  seeds  like  beans,  peas,  &c.,  also  the 
leaves  and  stems  of  salad  plants.  Where  all  the  people,  as 
in  France,  and  on  the  Rhine,  drink  wine  as  a  common 
beverage,  or  as  we  drink  tea  and  coffee,  they  consume  but 
half  the  quantity  of  bread  or  half  the  substances  of  the  first 
class,  for  which  wine  becomes  a  substitute.  The  illustrious 
Liebig  speaks  substantially  as  follows  of  the  use  of  wine  in 
his  letters  on  chemistry:  "  Wine  contains  alkalies,  organic 
acids,  and  other  substances  salutary  in  their  effects  on 
health,  and  in  this  respect  differs  widely  from  brandy, 
which  consists  of  water  and  only  one  constituent  of  wine — 
namely,  alcohol.  A  given  quantity  of  wine  distilled  into 
brandy  will  produce  an  amount  of  intoxication  that  double 
the  quantity  of  the  wine  that  produced  it  would  not,  because 
alcohol  is  concentrated  in  the  brandy,  and  devoid  of  the 
healthy  substances  of  the  wine,  which  remain  behind  in  the 
still.  If  the  brandy  and  the  other  substances  that  remain 
in  the  still  are  mixed  again,  the  product  won' t  make  wine, 
because  the  affinity  of  these  substances  has  been  broken  up 
by  the  operation  of  distillation,  and  can  not  be  restored  by 
any  human  ingenuity  ;  and,  besides,  that  much  of  the  vola 
tile  oils  and  acids  are  lost.  The  commercial  value  of  wine 
is  in  proportion  to  its  wholesome  effects  on  the  human  sys 
tem  by  increasing  the  action  of  secretion  in  the  lungs  and" 
kidneys ;  nor  is  the  value  of  good  wines  estimated  by  the 
amount  of  alcohol  they  contain,  but  upon  the  non-volatile 
constituents.  Bouquet  has  only  an  influence  on  its  price 
but  as  it  indicates  the  presence  of  these  other  constituents 
which  produce  wholesome  effects. 

As  a  means  of  restoring  cheerfulness  when  the  body  and 
mind  have  been  exhausted  or  worn  out  by  age  or  over- 
exertion,  as  a  means  of  correction  and  equalization  where 
disproportionate  food  has  caused  irregularities  in  the  human 
organism,  or  as  a  protection  against  casual  derangements 
produced  by  inorganic  substances,  wine  is  not  surpassed 
by  any  production  of  nature  or  art.  Rheumatism  and 
stone  complaints  are  nowhere  less  frequent  than  among  the 
wine-drinking  population  of  the  Rhine,  and  in  no  district 


140  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

of  Germany  are  the  drug  stores  so  valueless  as  in  the  rich 
cities  of  the  Rhine,  for  wine  is  considered  there  the  univer 
sal  panacea  for  the  healthy  and  the  sick,  as  well  as  the 
milk  of  old  age.  As  a  means  of  respiration  wine  performs 
important  functions.  By  its  use  starch  and  sugar  contain 
ing  substances,  especially  fat,  become  superfluous.  Provi 
dence,  then,  has  given  us  the  most  extended  wine  country 
in  the  world,  as  if  to  complete  our  means  of  industry, 
wealth,  and  human  happiness ;  and  who  so  insensate  as  to 
place  obstacles  in  its  development?  Wine  drinking  can 
only  promote  rational  temperance. 

Our  country,  which  produces  so  much  raw  material  for 
manufactures,  and  at  the  same  time  produces  food  in  greater 
abundance  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world  to  subsist  our 
operatives,  must  become  the  grand  center  of  manufactures  ; 
it  is  a  law  of  compensation  that,  where  food  and  material 
are  found  together,  manufactures  must  prosper,  for  it  is 
easier  to  import  an  operative  than  to  transport  to  him  food 
to  subsist  on,  and  crude  material  to  work  on  all  his  lifetime. 
Unwonted  obstacles  may  retard  the  operations  of  this  law, 
but  it  will  prevail  at  last.  This  being  the  manifest  destiny 
of  our  country,  we  must  not  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that 
the  finger  of  Providence  points  out  almost  everywhere  that 
we  have  a  wine  country,  so  essentially  necessary  to  the 
health,  longevity,  and  happiness  of  an  immense  population. 
The  men  who  get  out  coal  will  get  out  more  of  it,  and  the 
man  who  makes  the  iron  will  make  more  of  it,  and  of  better 
quality,  and  will  live  much  longer  and  happier  doing  it, 
when  they  drink  wine  instead  of  whisky.  Humanity  cries 
out  for  the  discardment  from  the  machine-shop  and  the  fur 
nace  that  friction  that  the  use  of  ardent  spirits  produces, 
and  the  substitution  therefor  of  pure  native  wines.  Reverse 
things,  and  make  wine  the  luxury  of  the  working  classes 
instead  of  the  rich,  and  our  great  country  will  become  still 
more  powerful  and  more  healthy  in  mind  and  body.  At 
the  present  time,  when  the  ancient  disease  of  trichinis  is 
threatening  public  safety,  the  fear  is  not  altogether  un 
founded  that  we  might  be  obliged  to  abstain  from  the  use 
of  pork,  as  all  ancient  nations  have  done,  doubtless  through 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  141 

necessity.  Then  where  would  the  poor  man  find  a  suitable 
substitute  for  the  imperative  demand  of  nature  to  replace 
the  fat  substances  which  supply  his  vitality,  if  not  in  native 
wines  ?  Most  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant 

MATTHEW  KELLER. 


CONCLUSION  OF  THE  SPEECH  OF  E.  R.  HIGHTON,  ON  PROPOSING  A 
TOAST  TO  THE  BENEVOLENT  SOCIETIES  OF  SAN  FRANCISCO,  MAY 
24,  1867. 

"  OUR  SISTER  BENEVOLENT  SOCIETIES." 

This  toast  was  proposed  by  E.  R.  Highton,  Esq.  The  following 
is  the  concluding  portion  of  his  remarks  upon  the  occasion : — 

HEN  Father  Junipero  Serra,  standing  on  a 
western  headland  of  this  peninsula,  on  the 
seventeenth  day  of  September,  1776,  according 
to  the  forms  of  his  Church,  solemnly  dedicated 
the  virgin  soil  to  Christian  enterprise,  what 
sanguine  prophet  would  have  been  bold  enough 
to  predict  the  present  condition  of  the  solitary  waste  that 
surrounded  him  ?  And  how  impossible  it  must  have  been 
to  foresee  the  development  of  those  civilizing  influences 
which  have  so  immeasurably  surpassed  any  conceivable 
anticipation  of  that  enthusiastic  and  devoted  missionary  ! 

Who  would  have  supposed,  twenty  years  ago,  that  here, 
amid  those  wind-blown  hillocks,  the  struggling  efforts  of  a 
few  missionary  fathers,  in  their  endeavors  to  impart  a  rudi 
mentary  civilization  to  a  tribe  of  half-naked  Indians,  would 
be  superseded  by  the  numerous  organizations  for  religious 
and  social  improvement  which  have  sprung  into  existence, 
or  that  the  primitive  Church  at  the  Mission  Dolores,  would 
be  overshadowed  by  the  massivQ  Christian  temples,  the 
public  schools,  and  various  institutions  of  science,  art,  and 
benevolence,  that  now  adorn  our  city  ;  or,  who  would  have 
imagined  that  on  the  site  of  those  barren  sand  hills  an  as 
sembly  like  this  would  be  discussing  measures  for  the  alle 
viation  of  human  misery  ? 


142  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

At  a  still  more  recent  period,  amid  the  disorders  of  our 
early  settlement,  who  among  those  of  ns  who  are  pioneers 
of  our  present  California  society,  would  have  thought  that 
in  so  short  a  time  the  erratic,  impulsive,  but  lavish  gener 
osity  of  our  crude,  individualized  community  would  have 
been  gathered  up  in  the  "  San  Francisco  Benevolent  Asso 
ciation,"  and  the  various  other  charitable  societies  of  our 
city  ? 

It  is  true  that  the  developments  of  benevolent  enterprise 
throughout  the  world  which  I  have  attempted  to  suggest 
for  our  contemplation,  have  been,  and  are,  represented  in 
this  locality  in  miniature  only  ;  but  they  are  replete  with 
indications  of  a  rapid  progress  and  an  intense  vitality. 
Out  of  the  very  complexity  of  our  social  condition  will 
arise  reciprocal  toleration  and  esteem,  and  increasing  co 
operative  union  for  practical  goodness,  which  must  event 
ually  issue  in  a  wTider  philanthropy  and  a  grander  civil 
ization,  refracting  upon  the  opposite  shores  of  Asia  the  con 
vergent  rays  of  its  moral  and  intellectual  light — exhibiting 
to  its  stagnant  philosophers,  by  the  effluence  of  Christian 
benevolence,  a  practical  exemplification  of  the  barren  max 
ims  of  Confucius  ;  superseding  the  institutes  of  Menu  by 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  extinguishing  the  fires  of 
Zoroaster  in  intenser  rays  from  the  Star  of  Bethlehem. 

Mr.  Chairman  :  On  this  convivial  occasion,  it  may  seem 
somewhat  discordant  to  refer  to  serious  matters  of  personal 
responsibility ;  but  the  co-operative  sympathy  which  my 
theme,  at  least,  implies,  rests  upon  our  individual  appre 
hension  of  mutual  obligation.  By  the  attractive  force  of  a 
sympathy  deep-seated  in  our  moral  natures,  and  by  an  in 
evitable  destiny,  we  are  each  of  us  linked  to  all  that  bears 
the  stamp  of  humanity.  "We  can  not  live  to  ourselves 
alone."  We  are  connected  by  this  subtle,  all-pervading 
influence  with  all  heroic  deeds  of  the  past,  and  identified 
with  all  benevolent  labors  of  the  present,  while  its  intui 
tions  realize  the  bright  hopes  of  the  future. 

In  all  the  transactions  of  life,  we  endeavor  to  leave  the 
impression  that  /  7iave  been.  In  the  aspirations  for  post 
humous  fame,  in  the  dread  of  the  stigma  of  posterity,  and 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  143 

in  the  undefined  longings  for  a  more  perfect  spiritual  com 
munion  which  we  all  experience,  we  read  the  impress  of 
immortality,  indicating  the  eternal  progress  of  our  spiritual 
"being,  and  urging  us  onward  in  the  path  of  love  and  duty. 

"  Tis  not  the  whole  of  life  to  live, 
Nor  all  of  death  to  die." 

We  are  told  of  a  time  when  we  shall  be  called  to  witness 
a  more  magnificent  festival,  under  a  more  spacious  dome, 
and  surrounded  by  scenes  of  the  most  awful  sublimity. 
On  that  occasion,  eligibility  to  pass  the  vestibule,  we  are 
assured,  will  depend  exclusively  on  moral  qualities  and 
actions.  The  invitations  will  not  be,  Come,  for  you  are  a 
true-born  Briton,  or  a  chivalrous  Frenchman,  or  a  philo 
sophic  German,  or  a  free  and  enlightened  American,  or  be 
cause  you  were  a  member  of  this  or  that  society  or  church, 
but  it  will  be,  Come  !  "  for  I  was  a-hungered,  and  ye  gave  me 
meat ;  I  w^  as  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  drink ;  I  was  a 
stranger,  and  ye  took  me  in  :  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me  ;  I 
wras  sick,  and  ye  visited  me  :  I  was  in  prison,  and  ye  came 
unto  me."  And  when  these  personal  attentions  are  dis 
claimed,  the  Grand  Master  of  those  awful  ceremonies  will 
say  :  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least 
of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 

With  an  entire  concurrence  in  the  sentiment  I  have  so 
discursively  attempted  to  illustrate,  and  with  my  whole 
heart,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  beg  to  propose,  "  Our  Sister  Benev 
olent  Societies." 


POISON    ANTIDOTE. 

A  FARMER  sends  an  Atlantic  exchange  the  following  :  "It 
is  now  over  twenty  years  since  I  learned  that  sweet-oil 
would  cure  the  bite  of  a  rattlesnake,  not  knowing  that 
it  would  cure  any  other  poison.  Practice,  observation,  and 
experience  have  taught  me  that  it  will  cure  poison  of  any 
kind,  both  man  and  beast.  I  think  no  farmer  should  be 
without  a  bottle  of  it  in  his  house.  The  patient  must  take 
a  spoonful  internally,  and  bathe  the  wound  for  a  cure.  To 


CALIFORNIA-SCRAP-BOOK 

cure  a  liorse  it  requires  eight  times  as  much  as  it  does  a  man. 
Here  let  me  say  of  one  of  the  most  extreme  cases  of  snake 
bite  in  this  neighborhood,  eleven  years  ago  this  summer, 
where  the  case  had  been  over  thirty  days'  standing,  and  the 
patient  had  been  given  up  by  his  physicians.  I  heard  of 
it,  carried  the  oil,  gave  him  one  spoonful,  which  created  a 
cure.  It  will  cure  bloat  in  cattle  caused  by  eating  too  freely 
of  fresh  clover  ;  it  will  cure  sting  of  bees,  spiders,  or  other 
insects  ;  and  it  will  also  cure  persons  who  have  been  poi 
soned  by  a  low  running  vine  growing  in  meadows,  called 
ivy." 


QUARTZ   MINING   IN   ANCIENT   EGYPT. 

ININGr  for  gold  in  auriferous  quartz  veins  was 
prosecuted  extensively  in  Egypt  as  early  as 
2,500  years  ago — perhaps  much  earlier.     Fifty 
years  before  the  time  of  Christ  there  was  a 
picture  in  one  of  the  temples  in  Thebes  of  an 
Egyptian  monarch  making   a  present  to  the 
gods  of  all  the  gold  and  silver  which  he  received  in  one 
year  from  his  mines  ;  and  the  amount,  as  near  as  we  can 
now  arrive  at  it,  was  about  $30,000,000. 

The  historian  Diodorus  Siculus,  who]  mentions  this  pic 
ture,  adds,  as  translated  in  "Jacobs  on  the  Precious  Met 
als":— "On  the  confines  of  Egypt  and  the  neighboring 
countries  there  are  parts  full  of  gold  mines,  from  whence, 
with  the  cost  and  pains  of  many  laborers,  much  gold  is  dug. 
The  soil  is  naturally  black,  but  in  the  body  of  the  earth 
there  are  many  veins,  shining  with  white  marble  (quartz), 
and  glittering  with  all  sorts  of  bright  metals,  out  of  which 
those  appointed  to  be  overseers  cause  the  gold  to  be  dug  by 
the  labor  of  a  vast  multitude  of  people ;  for  the  kings  of 
Egypt  condemn  to  these  mines  not  only  notorious  criminals, 
captives  taken  in  war,  persons  falsely  accused,  and  those 
with  whom  the  king  is  personally  offended,  but  all  their 
kindred  and  relations.  These  are  sent  to  this  work  either 
as  a  punishment,  or  that  the  profit  and  gain  of  the  king 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

may  be  increased  by  their  labors.  There  are  thus  infinite 
numbers  thrust  into  these  mines,  all  bound  in  fetters,  kept 
at  work  night  and  day,  and  so  strictly  guarded  that  there 
is  no  possibility  of  their  effecting  an  escape.  They  are 
guarded  by  mercenary  soldiers  of  various  barbarous  nations, 
whose  language  is  foreign  to  them  and  to  each  other,  so  that 
there  are  no  means  either  of  forming  conspiracies  or  of  cor 
rupting  those  who  are  set  to  watch  them ;  they  are  kept  to 
incessant  work  by  the  rod  of  the  overseer,  who,  besides, 
lashes  them  severely.  Not  the  least  care  is  taken  of  the 
bodies  of  these  poor  creatures  ;  they  have  not  a  rag  to  cover 
their  nakedness  ;  and  whoever  sees  them  must  compassion 
ate  their  melancholy  and  deplorable  condition  ;  for,  though 
they  may  be  sick,  or  maimed,  or  lame,  no  rest  nor  inter 
mission  of  labor  is  allowed  them.  Neither  the  weaknesses 
of  old  age  nor  the  infirmities  of  females  excuse  any  from 
that  work  to  which  all  are  driven  by  blows  and  cudgels,  till 
at  length,  borne  down  by  the  intolerable  weight  of  their 
misery,  many  fall  dead  in  the  midst  of  their  insufferable 
labors.  Thus  these  miserable  creatures,  beingdestitute  of  all 
hope,  expect  their  future  days  to  be  worse  than  the  present, 
and  long  for  death,  as  more  desirable  than  life." — Alia  Cali- 
fornian,  1859. 


THE    FAIR    TAMBOURINIST. 

WITH  feet  half  naked  and  bare, 

And  dress  all  tattered  and  torn, 
With  a  penny  here  and  a  mockery  there, 

And  floods  of  derision  and  scorn, 
She  wanders  the  street  wherever  her  feet, 

Weary  and  willing,  are  borne, 
With  an  eye  as  bright  and  a  cheek  as  fair 

As  the  earliest  blush  of  the  morn. 

Wandering  up  and  down, 

And  driven  from  door  to  door, 

A  jest  for  every  idle  clown 

And  a  butt  for  every  boor ; 
10 


146  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

While  the  velvet-slippered,  in  satin  and  lace, 

Go  rustling  by  her  side, 
With  a  frozen  heart  and  a  curtained  face 

And  a  lip  curled  into  pride. 

So  beautiful,  yet  so  frail, 

So  willing  and  yet  so  weak, 
Oh,  what  if  the  heart  should  fail, 

And  a  heavenly  purpose  break  ! 
And  the  dens  and  kennels  and  brothels  of  hell 

Another  poor  victim  hold, 
A  celestial  spark  be  quenched  in  the  dark, 

And  an  angel  bartered  for  gold ! 

No  wonder  the  heart  should  fail, 

A  heavenly  purpose  fade, 
The  eye  grow  dim  and  the  cheek  grow  pale 

When  none  stand  ready  to  aid ! 
No  wonder  the  lairs  and  cradles  of  hell 

So  many  poor  victims  should  hold, 
When  the  good  are  content  to  worship  their  God 

And  the  rich  to  worship  their  gold. 

Move  patiently  on,  O  Earth ! 

Till  Mercy's  wandering  dove 
Shall  fly  to  the  realm  of  its  birth, 

And  rest  in  the  bosom  of  Love  ; 
Move  patiently  on  till  the  crucified  Christ 

Shall  gather  his  radiant  crown, 
From  the  lowly  flowers  and  bleeding  hearts 

That  the  world  has  trampled  down. 

LYMAN  R.  GOODMAN. 


CALIFORNIA  I      REMINISCENCE    AND    CAPABILITIES. 
t 

TWELVE  years  ago,  an  unusual  commotion  was 
observed  in  the  Atlantic  States.  In  every 
State  of  the  Union,  from  Maine  to  Louisiana, 
from  the  sea-coast  to  the  western  frontier,  in 
every  city,  town,  and  village,  a  universal  ex 
citement  prevailed.  Yet  no  devastating  war 
had  swept  over  the  land,  no  epidemic  had  scattered  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


147 


seeds  of  death  in  its  mournful  train  ;  there  was  no  appre 
hension  of  foes  from  abroad,  nor  domestic  dissensions 
which  threatened  the  peace  of  the  Union. 

Yet  in  the  streets,  and  at  the  corners  in  every  city,  in 
the  public  places  of  every  town  in  the  whole  United  States, 
knots  of  men  were  congregated,  earnestly  engaged  in  dis 
cussing  some  momentous  subject,  and  tones  of  wonder, 
perhaps  incredulity,  were  heard,  instead  of  warm  debate  ; 
the  inevitable  result  of  difference  of  opinion.  Newspapers 
were  read  with  avidity,  post-offices  and  bulletin-boards 
were  besieged  eagerly  for  news — in  fact,  the  nation  seemed  to 


CAL1FOBNIA    BTATB    CAPITOL. 


feel  a  thrill  to  its  very  center,  as  if  some  mighty  change  was 
on  the  eve  of  taking  place.  And,  indeed,  an  event  of  vast 
moment  was  about  to  occur,  which  would  be  felt,  not  in 
our  beloved  country  alone,  but  over  the  whole  civilized 
globe. 

A  little  later,  and  the  mists  which  seemed  gathering  upon 
our  horizon  grew  more  portentous  ;  the  breeze  which  had 
been  gently  blowing,  was  thickening  to  a  gale,  ere  long  to 
burst  into  a  whirlwind  that  should  be  felt  in  every  town 
and  hamlet  of  our  free  land,  and  produce  such  a  change  as 
had  never  been  felt  in  time  of  peace  since  our  country  took 
its  place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  A  note  of  prepara 
tion  was  sounded.  All  classes  seemed  actuated  by  one 


148  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

common  desire.  Men' s  eyes  were  turned  west,  as  if  a  new 
star  had  arisen,  and  all  were  eager  to  gaze  on  its  splendor. 
In  a  few,  very  few  months,  an  army  of  hardy  men  had  con 
gregated  upon  the  western  frontier  in  time  of  peace,  with 
out  "  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  war  " — without  leaders, 
or  organization  as  a  body — with  no  corps  of  reserve,  no 
depots  of  supplies  for  their  use  on  a  march,  for  a  march 
was  most  manifest — and  "  Westward  Ho !"  and  the  Plains, 
was  the  cry,  and  California  the  destination. 

Depending  on  individual  strength  and  such  supplies  as 
they  could  carry  with  them,  these  hardy  pioneers  were 
ready  to  dare  the  perils  of  the  plains,  to  swim  the  rushing 
streams,  to  climb  the  highest  mountains — ay !  to  scale  the 
highest  barrier  of  earth,  to  accomplish  their  purpose  ;  to 
suffer  hunger,  and  thirst,  and  privation  in  every  form,  rather 
than  not  prove  victorious  in  their  undertaking. 

On  the  sea-board,  too,  all  was  life  and  activity.  Mer 
chants  were  freighting  ships,  manufacturers  were  upon  the 
alert,  men  were  securing  a  passage  to  tempt  the  storms  of 
ocean,  reckless  alike  of  the  heat  of  the  tropics,  the  cold  of 
the  stormy  cape,  of  shipwreck,  or  danger.  A  mighty  ex 
odus  was  at  hand.  To  accomplish  this,  to  raise  the  means 
of  joining  the  swelling  throng,  lands  and  houses  were  often 
mortgaged  for  inconsiderable  sums,  and  families  by  these 
means  eventually  irreparably  ruined  ;  fathers  bid  farewell 
to  wife,  children,  and  home,  perhaps  never  to  return ;  the 
most  tender  ties  were  severed,  and  tears  and  sighs  were 
freely  mingled  with  the  bold  tones  of  hope  and  resolution. 

What  could  have  so  moved  our  people  ?  What  magic 
had  exerted  its  power  to  produce  so  great  a  commotion 
throughout  the  land  1  The  talisman  was  gold  !  Though 
thousands  of  miles  of  deserts  intervened,  though  the  path 
was  beset  by  tribes  of  hostile  Indians,  though  when  once 
fairly  launched  upon  their  weary  journey,  they  were  be 
yond  all  human  aid  in  distress  or  suffering,  save  only  such 
as  they  might  afford  each  other,  none  of  these  considera 
tions  seem  to  daunt  them  for  a  moment,  but  rather  appeared 
to  stimulate  their  love  of  adventure ;  they  halted  not,  nor 
hesitated  a  moment,  for  the  talisman  was  gold! 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  149 

Upon  the  Pacific  Ocean,  between  the  thirty-second  and 
forty- second  parallels  of  latitude,  was  situated  a  country 
which  only  two  years  previous  had  been  wrested  by  con 
quest  from  Mexico.  Whatever  Government  may  have 
known  of  the  capabilities  of  this  isolated  and  newly- 
acquired  territory,  its  geographic  characteristics  and  re 
sources,  the  people  in  mass  new  but  little.  To  them  it  was 
nearly  a  terra  incognita.  Fremont  and  Bryant  had  visited 
it.  They  spoke  of  the  salubrity  of  the  climate  and  the  fer 
tility  of  the  soil,  but  blended  witli  personal  narrative,  of 
the  perils  of  travel,  of  wide  wastes  of  desert  eind  of  plains, 
and  almost  inaccessible  mountains,  the  fairer  portions  of 
this  land  and  its  capabilities  were  passed  over  unheeded, 
and  less  was  known  of  California  then  than  there  is  of  Aus 
tralia  now. 

A  handful  of  brave  troops  had  conquered  a  barren,  moun 
tainous  country,  inhabited  by  half-civilized  Mexicans,  with 
a  few — very  few — Europeans  and  Americans,  who  attracted 
less  attention  in  the  States  than  is  now  given  to  the  citizens 
of  our  nearest  Territories.  There  was  a  large  valley  in 
habited  by  native  Californians,  whose  chief  resources  were 
in  their  cattle  and  horses.  There  was  no  trade,  no  manu 
factures  of  moment.  The  rest  was  known  as  barren  moun 
tains,  whose  snowy  crests  blended  witli  the  skies,  unfit  for 
aught  else  than  the  habitation  of  the  miserable  Digger 
Indian  and  wild  beasts  of  prey.  Briefly,  this  was  the  sub 
stance  of  our  knowledge  of  this  country  on  the  Pacific,  ex 
tending  from  north  to  south  about  seven  hundred  miles. 

There  were  but  four  or  five  old  Spanish  towns — if  the  old 
Missions  could  be  called  towns — and  the  whole  country, 
and  even  Monterey,  the  capital,  and  its  largest  town,  was 
scarcely  as  large  as  Grass  Valley  is  at  this  moment. 

But  the  hour  had  come  in  which  Providence  was  about 
accomplishing  one  of  those  mighty-  changes  which  mark  the 
history  of  nations.  The  accidental  discovery  of  gold  at 
Coloma  by  Marshall,  while  washing  out  a  mill-race,  changed 
the  whole  feature  of  the  kaleidoscope.  The  news  flew 
with  the  wind.  Those  already  living  here,  who  hitherto 
had  expected,  and  would  have  been  content,  with  a  moder- 


150  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

ate  competency,  rushed  to  those  very  barren  and  snowy 
mountains  to  secure  a  fortune.  All  was  wonder  and  fever 
ish  excitement.  Letters  were  written  to  the  States,  official 
reports  of  the  richness  of  the  discoveries  were  made,  but 
so  incredible  did  they  appear,  that  for  a  season  they  were 
suppressed  by  the  Government,  which  was  justly  unwilling 
to  excite  the  public  pulse  too  high  by  such  publications. 
But  letter  after  letter  came,  reiterating  the  truth  of  these 
discoveries,  and  at  last,  late  in  the  fall  of  18§S,  an  old  man 
named  Cutting  arrived  in  New  Orleans  from  California, 
having  in  his  possession  a  handsome  sum  in  specimens, 
which  he  had  dug  himself  in  the  mines.  Of  course  the 
papers  throughout  the  South  and  West  gave  extended 
notices  of  this,  and  Cutting  (with  whom  I  was  personally 
acquainted)  was  lionized  in  his  passage  from  New  Orleans 
to  Illinois. 

But  the  matter  was  by  this  time  placed  beyond  a  doubt, 
and  the  excitement  fanned  to  a  flame  ;  the  rush  commenced  ; 
the  throng,  bidding  farewell  to  home,  domestic  comfort,  and 
the  even  tenor  of  social  ties,  entered  upon  the  trials  and 
hardships  of  the  pioneer  emigrant,  in  search  of  this  barren, 
mountainous,  and  desolate  incognita  of  California. 

I  have  stood  upon  a  lofty  eminence  on  the  Western  prairies, 
as  well  as  upon  the  Rocky  Mountains,  where  the  view  em 
braced  the  horizon,  and  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  I  have 
seen  one  continued,  unbroken  line  of  moving  wagons,  with 
their  white  covers  oscillating  in  the  sunlight.  I  might  have 
stood  for  a  day,  and  watched  the  moving  mass,  and  yet, 
between  the  rising  and  the  setting  of  the  sun,  this  throng  of 
life  would  not  have  passed  by  ;  arid  during  the  whole  dis 
tance  of  about  two  thousand  miles,  I  was  never  moving 
with  my  own  train  alone  for  a  single  hour.  Many  trains 
were  always  in  sight,  and  thus  it  continued  from  May  till 
the  autumn  suns  had  crested  the  Sierras. 

How  many  of  this  mighty  throng  had  for  an  object  the 
settlement  of  the  country,  the  development  of  its  resources, 
the  expansion  of  its  capabilities?  How  many  of  them  had 
any  idea  that  this  new  country  had  any  capabilities  beyond 
that  of  producing  gold  ?  How  many  of  these  pioneers  but 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  151 

expected  to  return  ?  Among  all  with  whom  I  came  in  con 
tact,  there  was  but  a  single  family  who  designed  to  make 
California  home.  There  may  have  been  many  others,  but 
the  universal  cry  was,  or  seemed  to  be,  "Make  our  pile- 
go  home  to  enjoy  it."  They  knew  nothing — they  thought 
nothing — of  what  California  could  produce  beyond  its 
golden  sands.  They  cared  not — the  talisman  was  gold ! 
Gold  they  came  for.  It  was  for  gold  they  had  dared  the 
perils  of  the  plains  and  the  storms  of  the  ocean,  and  gold 
they  would  have.  Among  the  great  mass  there  was  no  idea 
of  making  a  home  in  California,  of  surrounding  themselves 
with  comforts,  of  transporting  their  domestic  ties  here,  and 
making  an  abiding  place  for  life  ;  of  building  up  a  State,  of 
ascertaining  if  it  was  capable  of  being  rendered  the  abode 
of  improvement  and  of  cultivated  minds.  It  was  gold, 
gold,  gold  !  and  getting  gold  was  at  first  the  all-pervading 
idea,  the  motive  of  exertion,  the  main-spring  of  action. 

Yet  Providence  was  working  oat  his  own  ends  with  the 
genius  of  our  people,  and  these,  too,  without  the  cruelties 
and  insatiate  love  of  plunder  which  actuated  the  con 
querors  of  Mexico  or  Peru.  It  was  wisely  decreed  that 
"man  should  earn  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow," 
and  that  gold  should  be  had,  if  at  all,  only  by  patience  and 
unremitting  labor. 

In  this  pursuit  many  found  themselves  physically  un 
qualified  for  the  severe  labor  necessary  to  unearth  the 
treasure,  and  many,  too,  were  unsuccessful  in  their  search, 
and  turned  from  the  mines  to  seek  more  congenial  pursuits. 
Necessity  compelled  many  to  engage  in  other  occupations. 
All  could  not  dig;  there  must  be  "  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water."  Other  crafts  were  necessary  for  the 
good  of  the  body  politic,  and  other  professions  soon  became 
in  demand.  Soon  the  discovery  was  made  that  the  seeming 
barren  plains  which,  they  had  passed  over  in  midsummer, 
when  the  ground  was  parched  and  dry,  would  yield  by 
proper  irrigation  and  culture,  not  only  the  grain  and  fruits 
of  the  Northern  States,  but  many  of  those  of  the  tropics. 
They  discovered  in  time  that  the  fig,  the  olive,  the  almond, 
and  the  pomegranate  grew  side  by  side  with  the  apple,  the 


152  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

plum,  the  peach,  and  pear.  A  new  phase  was  given  to  the 
pursuits  of  a  proportion  of  that  motley  throng,  who  had 
assembled  here  from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  dig  gold.  It 
was  discovered  that  California  had  other  capabilities  than 
the  production  of  gold  alone.  It  was  capable  of  making  a 
good  and  well-garnered  home  for  families  ;  it  was  capable 
of  affording  even  more  comforts  of  life  than  any  one  of  the 
Atlantic  States.  There  was  a  salubrity  in  the  climate 
which  they  had  not  known  at  home,  and  the  soil  was  more 
productive.  In  a  short  time  men,  by  agriculture  and  by 
trade,  became  in  easy  circumstances,  built  goodly  houses, 
sent  for  their  families,  and  seemed  content  to  adopt  this 
hitherto  barren  and  mountainous  country  for  a  home. 
Towns  began  to  spring  up,  even  in  the  mountains,  as 
well  as  upon  the  plains,  and  upon  the  rivers  and  sea 
board  ;  and  then  came  the  necessity  of  government.  Ideas 
rapidly  advanced  that,  after  all,  California  was  capable  of 
supporting  a  large  population,  and  furnishing  a  home  and 
happiness  beyond  the  mere  production  of  gold.  A  State 
Government  was  now  a  matter  of  necessity. 

With  Californians,  the 'wish  to  do,  is  but  the  precursor  of 
the  will ;  the  will  once  formed,  the  work  is  done,  and  in 
1850,  only  a  year  from  the  great  emigration,  and  three  from 
the  conquest,  we  were  knocking  at  the  door  of  Congress  for 
admission  as  a  State.  When  Congress  in  its  age,  and  with 
its  antiquated  notions,  looked  over  its  spectacles  upon  us 
with  an  incredulous  smile  of  pity,  as  a  little  child  claim 
ing  our  share  of  Uncle  Sam's  heritage,  we  boldly  affirmed 
that  we  did  not  ask  it  as  a  favor,  we  demanded  it  as  a 
right. 

It  certainly  did  appear  somewhat  precocious  for  a  Terri 
tory  of  only  three  years  of  age,  to  be  asking  admission  as  a 
State,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  our  rulers  could  not  under 
stand  our  capability  of  sustaining  a  State  Government. 
They  knew  that  we  were  sending  them  large  amounts  of 
treasure,  and  this  they  deemed  was  all  California  was  capa 
ble  of  doing,  and  they  withheld  their  assent  to  our  just 
demands  most  vexatiously,  until  our  patience  was  almost 
exhausted,  for  the  exigency  of  the  case  made  it  important 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  153 

for  our  own  welfare,  that  we  should  have  a  Government 
more  effective  than  simply  a  territorial  one. 

When,  at  length,  the  announcement  was  made  that  Con 
gress  had  finally,  though  grudgingly,  admitted  California  as 
a  State,  and  that  the  acts  of  the  people  in  the  premises  were 
confirmed,  the  "glad  tidings"  were  hailed  with  joy,  bon 
fires  were  kindled,  artillery  pealed,  and  acclamations  re 
sounded  in  every  town  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  the  land,  for  the  people  of  California  loved  their  breth 
ren  at  home,  and  above  all  the  glorious  Union  of  States 
which  bound  them  in  one  common  tie,  and  they  ardently 
desired  that  the  star-spangled  banner  should  wave  over 
mountains  and  plains,  a  symbol  that  this,  too,  was  "the 
land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave." 

Processions,  orations,  odes,  and  illuminations  were  the 
order  of  the  day.  The  thousand  ships  which  floated 
proudly  in  the  harbors,  were  gayly  decked  with  streamers, 
gun  after  gun  boomed  over  the  placid  waters,  and  could 
our  Atlantic  brethren  have  witnessed  the  general  joy  of  the 
brave  pioneers,  they  too  would  have  gladly  joined  in  the 
prolonged  shout  of  "  The  Union,  Now  and  Forever!" 

The  Government  once  formed,  other  events  naturally  fol 
lowed,  and  prominent  among  them  was  a  desire  to  ascertain 
the  resources  of  our  infant  State.  The  aid  of  science  was 
invoked,  and  geological  and  agricultural  surveys  instituted. 
Gold  and  silver  we  knew  were  buried  in  our  hills,  or  sunk 
beneath  the  streams,  but  what  has  been  the  result  of  fur 
ther  investigation  ?  Why,  that  we  have  within  our  own 
territory  the  elements  of  a  nation.  Our  water-power  is 
unlimited.  There  is  enough  to  move  the  whole  machinery 
of  any  one  State.  Our  agricultural  lands  are  capable  of 
supporting  a  population  larger  than  the  whole  of  Mexico. 
By  actual  experiment  it  is  found  that  California  will  pro 
duce  cotton,  sugar-cane,  and  rice,  and  also  the  cereals  of  the 
Northern  States.  We  are  capable  of  manufacturing  every 
thing  in  California,  from  our  own  resources,  that  a  nation 
actually  needs  for  its  people.  We  have  an  abundance  of 
timber  for  ship-building.  The  silk-worm  and  the  mulberry 
thrive  as  well  here  as  in  Italy,  while  the  grape  rivals  those 


154-.  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

grown  in  sunny  France.  Our  very  hills,  which  but  a  short 
period  since  were  looked  upon  as  barren  and  worthless,  are 
found  by  experiment  to  be  capable  of  growing  thrifty  vine 
yards  and  cereal  grains.  They  are  already  attracting  the 
attention  of  farmers,  and  every  available  location  is  being 
taken  up. 

The  day  will  inevitably  come  when  we  will  rival  the  vine- 
growing  districts  of  the  old  world,  when  we  shall  become  a 
large  exporter  of  wines  and  brandies,  and  if  the  time  ever 
comes  when  our  mines  shall  be  worked  out,  our  very  hills 
and  valleys  will  not  fail  to  pour  out  their  agricultural  treas 
ure  for  the  support  of  a  large  population. 

California  possesses  within  her  borders,  a  territory  of, 
in  round  numbers,  100,000,000  acres.  Deduct  from  this 
60,000,000  for  lakes,  rivers,  bays,  and  sterile  mountains, 
and  you  have  left  40,000,000  of  available  land  of  various 
qualities  which  may  be  used  for  the  support  of  human 
life. 

In  a  densely  peopled  country,  as  in  China,  for  instance, 
an  acre  of  productive  ground  properly  cultivated  is  suffi 
cient  for  the  support  of  a  single  individual  ;  but  allowing 
five  acres  to  each,  it  shows  that  California  is  capable  of 
supporting  in  comparative  comfort  —  I  mean  beyond  the 
probability  of  starvation — a  population  of  eight  millions 
of  the  human  family. 

Cotton  can  be  cultivated  as  far  north  as  Sacramento,  as 
shown  by  experiments.  El  Dorado  County  has  produced  it 
(see  Trask'  s  Reports)  as  white  as  the  driven  snow  ;  while  that 
of  San  Diego  has  been  pronounced  equal  to  the  best  Sea 
Island.  The  tule  lands  of  the  State,  once  looked  upon  as 
irreclaimable  marshes,  will  make  superior  rice-fields,  while 
the  rich  bottom  lands  of  the  southern  valleys  produce  as 
fragrant  tobacco  as  is  grown  in  Cuba.  Our  foot-hills,  even 
at  an  altitude  of  two  thousand  feet,  produce  as  fine  apples, 
peaches,  grapes,  and  almonds,  as  are  raised  in  the  world, 
and  in  Grass  Valley,  which  is  at  an  altitude  eighteen 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  Sacramento,  I  can  show  the 
curious  thrifty  fig-trees  ;  though  these  require  a  sheltered 
spot  from  winter  storms. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  155 

It  is  estimated  that  California  is  capable  of  producing  not 
less  than  50,000,000  pounds  of  wool  yearly. 

As  for  our  mineral  riches,  beside  our  gold  and  silver,  we 
have  widely  distributed,  and  in  sufficient  quantities  for 
practical  purposes  : — 

Copper — In  large  quantities  in  the  northern  counties. 

Iron— In  Mariposa,  Nevada,  and  Placer,  85  per  cent,  in 
richness. 

Copperas — Large  quantities  near  Santa  Cruz. 

Platinum — Diffused  yery  generally  throughout  the  mines. 

Chromum — Used  in  coloring  porcelain  and  in  dying,  on 
Nelson' s  Creek,  in  Butte  County,  and  other  places. 

Gypsum — A  plaster  of  Paris,  very  common. 

Nickel— Used  in  the  manufacture  of  German- silver- ware, 
is  found  in  quantities  in  Monterey  County. 

Porcelain  clay — For  china-ware  ;  abundant  in  Grass 
Valley,  but  very  general. 

Pipe  clay — Very  fine  ;  in  Grass  Valley,  and  very  general. 

Arsenical  ores — Very  common. 

Antimony — In  Mount  Diablo. 

Cinnabar,  Mercury — Vast  quantities  ;  already  an  article 
of  export,  beside  the  large  amount  used  by  the  miners. 

Sulphur,  Saltpeter — Vast  deposits  of  both  in  the  Coast 
Range. 

Lead,  tin. 

Bitumen — Or  mineral  tar,  in  vast  deposits,  southern 
counties. 

Coal — In  great  abundance  ;  large  veins  and  quite  acces 
sible. 

Limestone. 

Marble — Of  excellent  qualities ;  some  most  beautifully 
variegated,  and  susceptible  of  exquisite  polish,  as  that  of 
Suisun. 

Salt. 

Borax — In  unlimited  quantities,  in  Napa  County. 

Alabaster — In  Monterey,  rivaling  the  finest  Italian. 

Buhrstone— For  mill  stones  ;  of  superior  quality. 

Our  mines,  according  to  the  best  authority  at  my  com 
mand,  have  yielded  in  gold,  since  1849.  inclusive,  the  enor- 


156  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

mous  sum  of  $750,000,000 — probably  more.  And  who  that 
knows  them  doubts  for  a  moment  their  capability  of  yielding 
a  like  sum  in  the  next  ten  years,  with  the  proper  appliances. 
Manufactures  of  various  kinds  have  already  begun,  and 
can  we  doubt  the  capacity  of  California,  with  all  the  means 
she  possesses,  of  becoming  in  time  a  large  exporter  instead 
of  importer  of  innumerable  articles  of  commerce,  which 
she  now  buys  with  her  gold  and  silver,  that  are  carried 
away  instead  of  being  retained  in  the  State  \  Does  not  the 
contemplation  that  we  actually  possess  all  these  minerals, 
and  means  of  increasing  our  wealth  as  a  State,  fill  the  mind 
with  emotion  at  the  high  destiny  which  Providence  seems 
to  have  marked  out  for  us  ?  That  sooner  or  later,  under  a 
wise,  just,  and  liberal  Government,  which  will  encourage 
the  efforts  of  our  citizens,  California  will  take  a  prominent 
rank  among  the  States  of  the  Union,  for  its  manufactures, 
as  it  has  already  done  in  the  world  for  its  mineral  treasures  ? 
Is  she  not  capable  of  attaining  the  high  distinction  of  being 
among  the  first,  and  shall  she  not  improve  the  talent  which 
Heaven  has  so  bountifully  bestowed  upon  her  ?  Shall  the 
capabilities  which  she  possesses  be  thrown  away,  while  she 
makes  for  herself  a  barren  Sahara  in  political  economy  ? 
Forbid  it  Heaven !  Shall  we  not  employ  every  means  in 
our  power  to  awaken  the  General  Government  to  a  just 
appreciation  of  our  value  to  the  Union,  and  leave  it  no 
peace  till  it  cast  aside  the  trickery  of  brawling  politicians, 
and  we  obtain  at  once  the  strong  link  which  will  draw  us 
into  the  folds  of  the  Atlantic  States  on  equal  terms,  by  a 
much  needed,  long  desired,  and  indispensable  railroad, 
stretching  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  \  From  our 
beginning  as  a  State  to  the  present  moment  we  have  been 
the  prey  of  soulless  politicians  and  speculating  sharpers, 
who  have  regarded  only  their  individual  interests  in  pluck 
ing  the  State,  and  who,  by  anti-railroad  movements  and 
steamship  monopolies,  have  retarded  our  growth  and  injured 
our  prosperity.  Is  it  not  time  that  these  things  should  end  ? 
There  is  still  another  view  of  the  capabilities  of  Califor- 
'nia,  which  can  scarcely  be  called  Utopian.  In  a  climate 
^vhich  for  salubrity  is  not  excelled  by  that  of  any  country 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  157 

on  the  globe,  the  developments  of  the  human  system,  when 
free  from  excesses,  must  be  in  unison  with  the  surround 
ings  of  nature.  The  pure  air  of  the  mountains  must  have 
a  beneficial  effect  upon  the  physical  development  of  man, 
and  with  proper  training  his  intellectual  faculties  must  be 
fully  matured,  and  in  time,  California  will  produce  her  full 
quota  of  distinguished  men  and  women.  There  seems  to 
be  something  in  the  climate  as  well  as  in  the  sublime 
scenery  which  surrounds  us,  that  excites  and  fosters  litera 
ture  and  science. 

The  towering  and  snow-clad  mountains  excite  the  organs 
of  sublimity,  while  our  charming  lakes  and  silver  streams 
awaken  ideas  of  the  beautiful.  Our  minerals  impel  the 
action  of  scientific  minds,  and  our  position  in  the  world,  as 
being  between  the  eastern  and  western  hemispheres,  calls 
the  attention  of  political  economists. 

From  these  deductions  may  we  not  draw  the  inference  that 
in  future  days  California  will  produce  her  poets,  her  states 
men,  her  philosophers,  and  literary  geniuses,  who  will 
earn  for  themselves  a  well-deserved  fame  on  the  pages  of 
history  ?  Nowhere  have  I  observed  in  so  small  a  popula 
tion  as  ours  is  at  present,  so  many  who  desire  to  walk  in 
the  paths  of  literature  and  science.  It  seems  as  if  inspira 
tion  was  forced  upon  them  by  our  surroundings,  and  that 
it  was  a  relief  to  vent  their  feelings  in  prose  or  verse,  in 
scientific  investigation,  or  in  the  study  of  political  economy 
for  the  use  of  the  world. 

But  with  all  these  capabilities,  with  all  in  our  possession 
which  may  gratify  ambition  and  make  life  happy,  it  is  pos- 
sible  that  we  may  be  stranded  on  hidden  sands. 

A  corrupt  Government  may  blast  our  dearest  hopes, 
immorality  and  vice  may  blight  our  highest  aspirations, 
selfish  and  unscrupulous  politicians  may  destroy  our  surest 
means  for  exalted  happiness,  by  passing  unequal  laws. 
When  men  become  non- producers,  hanging  like  drones 
upon  society,  and  gain  a  preponderance  in  the  affairs  of 
State,  or  the  control  in  our  social  circles,  spending  their 
time  in  drinking,  gambling,  and  vice,  casting  aside  all 
thought  of  properly  applying  the  means  of  true  greatness 


158  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

within  our  reach,  what  must  be  the  inevitable  result  \  A 
degraded  and  time-serving  people — a  mental  Sahara  of 
intellect— a  vulgar  ambition  for  trifles,  which  do  not  enno 
ble — a  barren  vineyard  in  the  midst  of  a  blooming  garden 
— a  trouble  to  ourselves,  and  a  pest  to  the  world. 

Shall  we  permit  this  beautiful  portion  of  earth  to  fall  to 
perdition,  or  shall  we  adopt  in  truth  our  glorious  national 
motto,  E  pluribus  unum,  in  our  great  cause  of  expanding 
the  capabilities  of  our  State,  of  demanding  from  the  parent 
Government  that  appreciation  which  justly  is  ours,  and  to 
make  our  beloved  California  a  bright  star  in  the  national 
galaxy — honorable  in  the  world,  and  desirable  as  an  abid 
ing  place  for  life  \—A.  Delano,  "  Old  Block,"  in  S.  F.  Mir 
ror,  July  26,  1860. 


STIRRING    THOUGHTS. 

CLOSING   PORTION   OP    AN   ADDRESS    DELIVERED    BY    REV.    M.    C.    BRIGGS,    AT     THE    COM 
MENCEMENT  EXERCISES   OF   THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   THE    PACIFIC,    July,    1866. 

5 

[O,  then,  young  gentlemen,  if  you  are  ambitious 
to  become  leaders  of  mankind,  consider  whether 
it  is  the  walking-beam  that  moves  the  engine, 
or  the  engine  that  moves  the  walking-beam. 
You  must  begin  at  the  bottom  and  work  up 
ward.  Go  down  to  the  lower  strata  of  society 
and  quicken,  and  agitate,  arid  elevate  the  masses.  Take 
upon  you  the  scholar's  noblest  work  ; -diffuse  your  rare, 
true  thoughts,  and  make  them  common  as  dew  and  sunlight. 
Spread  your  better  knowledge  as  the  Spring  spreads  beau 
ty.  Pour  it  along  the  valleys,  hang  it  on  the  shoulders  of 
the  hills,  festoon  the  rocks,  awake  the  dormant  life  of  tree, 
and  bulb,  and  slumberous  seed,  kiss  barrenness  from  the 
face  of  the  desert,  and  make  it  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the 
rose.  Believe  me,  congresses  and  cabinets  and  courts  are 
nourished  by  the  roots  which  reach  these  countless  hidden 
springs.  The  character  and  power  of  governments  have  a 
common  origin,  inasmuch  as  both  are  from  the  people.  The 
sure  way  to  make  the  hands  move  round  the  dial-face  with 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  159 

order  and  precision  is,  to  regulate  the  concealed  machinery 
of  the  chronometer. 

Not  to  outshine,  but  to  shine  out ;  not  to  indicate,  but  to 
create  ;  not  to  rise  above  men,  but  to  raise  men  above  them 
selves,  is  the  ambition  of  great  and  consecrated  souls. 
Curiously  enough,  that  which  is  the  aim  of  a  genuine  phi 
lanthropy,  is  the  soundest  philosophy  of  reformation  and 
success.  It  was  Jesus  who  said,  "  Whosoever  will  be  great 
among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister.  Whosoever  will  be 
chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant."  The  noble 
spirits  are  they  who  go  down  to  the  basest  and  lowest  of 
their  kind  with  messages  of  instruction  and  hope. 

"  Voiced  like  heaven's  lark  amidst  the  night  of  hell "  are 
" great"  and  "chief,"  greater  than  conquerors  and  kings. 
The  work  is  heroic — it  is  Christian-like — and  it  reaches 
grand  and  visible  results  with  a  comprehensive  breadth 
and  certainty  unknown  to  more  superficial  measures. 
Raise  those  fundamental  masses  a  degree  in  average  intelli 
gence  and  morals,  and  you  carry  up  all  that  is  above  them. 
Make  them  better,  and  by  inevitable  sequence  you  make 
every  thing  better  up  to  the  dome  of  the  Capitol.  God 
never  meant  that  respectability  and  order  and  religion 
and  law,  should  ripple  and  sparkle  and  float  securely  on 
the  surface  of  a  fathomless  sea  of  ignorance  and  moral  pol 
lution.  He  never  meant  that  the  work  of  salvation  should 
proceed  backward  and  downward.  Christ  began  where 
those  who  are  content  to  imitate  him  must  begin — where 
the  reformers  of  history  have  all  begun— preaching  the 
gospel  to  the  poor.  Bend  low,  and  you  will  lift  humanity. 
Lifting  humanity,  you  carry  up  all  its  institutions  with  it. 
Such  is  the  great  and  terrible  responsibility  of  the  privi 
leged  few  for  the  condition  of  the  unprivileged  many. 
Such  is  the  inexorable  rule  of  remedy  for  the  social  and 
political  evils  that  affect  mankind. 

To  do  such  a  work,  you  must  be  ready  to  accept  inca 
pacity,  incredulity,  misconstruction,  and  the  unscrupulous 
hostility  of  every  wicked  interest  which  you  seek  to  uproot. 
Send  forth  your  good  thought  to  encounter  the  common 
fate  of  purifying  ministers.  They  will  strip  it  naked,  shoe 


160  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

it  with  a  peasant' s  clogs,  trick  it  out  fantastically  like  a 
clown,  pelt  it  with  mud,  spit  upon  it,  buffet  it,  crown  it 
with  thorns,  crucify  it.  Be  content ;  if  it  die,  it  shall  live 
again.  Never  contend  for  the  mere  fashion  and  draping  of 
your  ideas.  Never  grow  impatient  or  desponding  because 
you  meet  with  reluctance  and  unbelief. 

"  There  is  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds." 

They  that  fling  a  blank  refusal  in  your  face,  will  afterward 
repent  and  go. 

Go  down  to  the  substratum,  the  broad  social  bed-rock, 
and  work  up  with  a  will.  Condescend  to  men  of  low 
estate.  Enforce  good  counsel  with  a  blameless  life.  Suf 
fuse  and  kindle  the  life  with  the  auroral  beauty  and  fervid 
glow  of  Christ-begotten  love.  In  the  lowest  human  crea 
ture  recognize  a  brother,  in  the  weakest  a  helper,  in  the 
most  perfidious  a  friend.  A  greater  than  you  and  I  stooped 
to  the  helpless  and  guilty,  and  when  he  was  lifted  up,  even 
upon  a  cross,  he  drew  all  men  unto  Him.  Wait  as  if  there 
was  no  working.  Work  as  if  there  was  no  waiting.  So 
will  you  resolve  the  equation,  and  complete  the  circle  of  a 
brave,  true,  and  effective  life. 

"  Think  truly,  and  each  thought  of  thine 

Shall  the  world's  hunger  feed  ; 
Live  truly,  and  thy  life  shall  be 
A  great  and  noble  creed." 


CURIOUS    OPTICAL    EFFECT. 

Two  straight  lines  placed  in  relation  to  each  other,    as 
indicated  in  the  diagram,    seem  greatly  dis 
proportionate  in  length,    although  they  are 
exactly  equal.      We  have  tried  the  illusory 
experiment  a  hundred  times  on  as  many  dif 
ferent  persons,  and  they  have  invariably  pro 
nounced    the  perpendicular    line    much    the 
longest.     We  can  give  no  other  explanation  for  this  effect 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  161 

than  that  the  perpendicular  line  and  horizontal  line  meet  in 
the  center  of  the  latter.  Will  any  one  give  a  more  satisfac 
tory  solution  ? 


AGRICULTURE    IX    ITALY. 

[N  geography,  climate,  and  soil,  California  is  often 
said  to  resemble  Italy.  It  is  probable  that  here 
after,  when  this  State  obtains  adequate  popula 
tion,  it  will  present  an  agricultural  system  similar 
in  its  prominent  features  to  that  which  exists  in 
that  classic  land.  In  a  recent  number  of  the  New  York 
Nation,  George  P.  Marsh,  American  Minister  at  Turin,  gives 
some  very  interesting  facts  concerning  the  agricultural  prog 
ress  of  Italy.  We  quote  :  — 

The  total  continental  and  insular  surface  of  the  kingdom, 
excluding,  of  course,  the  Austro- Italian  provinces  and  the 
States  of  the  Church,  amounts  to  about  sixty-four  millions 
of  acres,  or  one  hundred  thousand  square  miles.  Upon  a 
rough  comparison,  then,  we  may  say  that  the  kingdom  of 
Italy  is  about  one  and  a  half  times  as  large  as  New  England, 
about  equal  to  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  taken  together, 
little  more  than  half  as  large  as  California,  considerably  less 
than  half  the  size  of  Texas,  and  but  one- twenty -ninth  part 
as  extensive  as  the  United  States  of  America. 

The  great  lakes  occupy  a  surface  of  rather  less  than  half  a 
million  of  acres.  About  925,000  acres  are  covered  with  small 
lakes,  shallow  pools,  and  other  stagnating  waters,  more 
than  half  of  which,  it  is  thought,  could  be  drained  with 
advantage.  The  extent  of  originally  boggy  and  marshy 
lands  is  estimated  at  1,300,000  acres,  of  which  500,000  have 
been  already  reclaimed,  and  200,000  are  in  process  of  im 
provement  by  draining. 

The  soil  devoted  to  the  growth  of  rice  amounts  to  450,000 
acres.  Of  these  grounds,  about  two-thirds  are  liooded  at 
pleasure  from  perennial  streams,  the  remainder  being  sup 
plied  from  reservoirs  of  rain-water  and  other  sources  quali 
fied  as  ' '  adventitious."  It  is  a ,fact  of  interest  that  not  more 
11 


162  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

than  one-tenth  part  of  the  rice  grounds  of  Italy  lie  south  of 
the  parallel  of  forty-four  degrees  north  latitude,  while  in 
the  United  States  little  rice  is  grown  north  of  the  thirty-fifth 
degree.  In  other  words,  the  southern  limit  of  profitable 
cultivation  of  this  grain  in  Italy  is  nine  degrees,  or  600 
miles  north  of  the  northern  limit  of  the  same  branch  of 
agriculture  in  the  United  States.  This  difference  is  by  no 
means  due  wholly  to  climatic  causes ;  for,  though  the 
summer  temperature  of  our  Atlantic  and  valley  States 
would  not  admit  much  extension  of  rice  culture  northward, 
there  is  nothing  in  the  climate  of  Italy  to  prevent  the 
growth  of  rice  in  any  part  of  the  peninsula  except  in  the 
mountainous  districts.  The  cause  of  the  difference  lies  in  the 
special  geographical  character  of  northern,  central,  and 
southern  Italy,  respectively.  In  the  former  division  there 
is  a  far  greater  extent  of  gently  sloping  plain,  admitting 
easy  flooding,  and  therefore  suited  to  the  cultivation  of 
rice,  than  in  the  two  latter,  and  the  Alps  and  the  northern 
scarp  of  the  Apennines  afford  much  more  abundant  supplies 
of  water  than  the  middle  and  southern  ridges  of  the  latter 
chain.  Besides,  rice  culture  would  be  much  more  preju 
dicial  to  health  in  southern  than  in  northern  Italy,  and  the 
habits  of  the  population  are  less  favorable  to  so  severe  and 
disagreeable  a  branch  of  agricultural  industry  in  the  former 
than  in  the  latter  provinces. 

The  regularly  irrigated  lands  in  the  Italian  kingdom 
already  amount  to  not  less  than  3,350,000  acres,  or  more 
than  5,200  square  miles.  The  Canal  Cavour,  now  very 
near  completion,  will  add  250,000  square  miles  to  this 
quantity,  and  numerous  other  canals  for  the  same  purpose 
are  in  course  of  construction,  or  at  least  projected  with 
prospect  of  success.  It  is  computed  that  in  Lombardy  a 
proper  supply  of  water  increases  the  annual  product  of 
lands  by  about  twenty  dollars  per  acre,  at  the  present 
prices  of  agricultural  growths.  There  are  few  crops  which 
are  not  irrigated  when  the  means  are  at  hand,  and  even 
chestnut,  walnut,  and  forest  trees  are  not  unfrequently 
watered  with  manifest  advantage.  In  the  Alps,  irrigation 
is  carried  up  to  the  very  foot  of  the  glaciers,  and  on  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  163 

southern  slope  of  those  mountains  water  is  applied  to 
meadows  which  lie  farther  northward  than  the  city  of 
Montreal,  and  higher  than  the  highest  peak  of  the  White 
Mountains.  About  half  the  Italian  rice  fields  are  supplied 
with  water  by  means  of  artificial  canals,  often  large  enough 
for  boats  of  considerable  burden,  and  furnishing  a  great 
amount  of  power  for  driving  machinery  ;  the  residue  are 
flowed  by  small  conduits  from  rivers,  reservoirs,  springs, 
and  wells.  There  is  in  Italy  unquestionably  a  very  great 
extent  of  soil  valuable  for  pasturage  and  the  growth  of 
timber,  but  too  rugged  and  broken  in  surface  for  irrigation, 
and  there  are  large  districts  which  have  no  means  of  ob 
taining  sufficient  water.  There  are  also  regions  where, 
from  the  constitution  of  the  superficial  and  the  subsoil, 
from  peculiarities  of  local  climate,  and  from  other  circum 
stances,  irrigation  is  neither  practiced  nor  needed,  and  some 
of  the  lands  of  this  description  sell  at  high  prices ;  but,  in 
Italian  husbandry  generally,  water  is  almost  as  necessary 
as  solar  heat  to  profitable  agriculture.  The  stimuli  of  neces 
sity  and  profit  are  encouraging  great  efforts  for  the  exten 
sion  of  the  system  of  irrigation,  and  in  all  probability  the 
day  is  not  very  far  distant  when  the  current  of  every  spring 
and  brook  and  river  in  Italy  will  have  been  at  least  once 
utilized  for  irrigation,  for  hydraulic  machinery,  or  for  navi 
gation. 

A  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  Italian  peninsula 
and  islands  being  covered  by  barren  mountains,  and  much 
of  the  lowlands  being  so  unhealthy  as  to  be  scarcely  habit 
able,  the  amount  of  land  which  can  be  made  to  produce 
food  for  man  or  for  domestic  animals,  or  vegetable  growths 
required  for  other  human  use,  is  relatively  small,  and  the 
twenty-two  millions  of  souls  that  compose  the  population 
must  draw  their  nourishment  from  an  extent  of  territory 
which  seems  insignificant  to  eyes  familiar  with  the  vast 
expansion  of  our  own  arable  soil.  Hence,  while  the  wages 
of  the  farm-laborer  are  low,  probably  not  much  exceeding, 
on  the  average,  a  franc  a  day,  without  board,  the  price  of 
land  is  high,  and  it  is  only  under  exceptional  circumstances 
that  he  who  inherits  no  patrimony  can  hope  to  own  the 


164  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

smallest  portion  of  the  soil  lie  tills.  The  landed  proprietors 
of  Italy,  like  those  of  France,  are  tenacious  of  their  acres, 
and  sales  of  real  estate  are  much  less  common  in  those 
countries  than  in  our  own,  where  lands  and  houses  pass 
from  hand  to  hand  almost  as  readily  as  personal  property. 
So  rare  are  transfers  of  land  in  Italy,  in  fact,  that  a 
stranger  can  gather  from  his  own  observation,  or  from  per 
sonal  inquiry,  very  little  information  as  to  the  current 
market  yalue  of  real  estate.  The  report  under  consider 
ation  attempts  to  give  from  local  returns  the  average  prices 
of  meadow  and  arable  grounds,  and,  in  many  cases,  of 
woods,  vineyards,  heaths,  and  marshes  in  each  province. 
The  range  of  discrepancy  in  price  between  dry  and  ir 
rigable  land  is  very  great ;  for,  while  in  some  situations 
pastures  or  meadows  without  water  are  not  worth  more 
than  twenty,  or  even  ten  dollars  an  acre,  there  are  irrigated 
lands  which  command  not  less  than  six  hundred  dollars  an 
acre.  I  do  not  refer  to  market  garden  grounds  in  the  imme 
diate  vicinity  of  large  towns,  or  vineyards  planted  with  favor 
ite  growths,  which  are  sold  at  fancy  prices,  but  to  lands  de 
voted  to  ordinary  cultivation.  Besides  original  character  of 
soil  and  convenience  to  high-roads  and  markets,  the  value  of 
irrigated  lands  is  much  affected  by  the  quality  and  usual 
temperature  of  the  water  supplied  to  them.  A  warm  rivulet, 
which  brings  down  and  deposits  vegetable  slime  or  enrich 
ing  mineral  substances,  may  double,  or  even  decuple  the 
price  of  the  land  it  waters,  while  cold  glacier  streams, 
charged  with  silicious  sediment,  add  very  little  to  the  price 
of  the  soil  over  which  they  are  conducted.  So  far  as  the 
writer  of  this  notice  can  judge  from  the  returns  before  him, 
and  from  a  good  deal  of  inquiry,  he  thinks  that  lands  of  the 
same  relative  value  as  those  which  compose  the  bulk  of 
New  England  and  New  York  farming  grounds,  are  worth  in 
Italy  from  seventy-five  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  an 
acre. — Sacramento  Union,  April,  1866. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  165 


A    HARD-WORKING    CALIFORNIA   AUTHOR. 

jHE  Old  World  goes  on  analyzing,  scribbling, 
fighting,  traveling,  and  talking  in  this  year 
1864,  as  in  every  year  of  the  last  six  thousand. 
There  is  no  "let  up"  in  poetry,  science,  let 
ters,  nor  art,  and  the  journalists  must  display 
their  mimic  wares  to  the  world's  gossips,  think 
ers,  and  long- heads,  till  the  crack  of  doom.  At  the  same 
time  the  German  Solomons,  with  glass  of  ten  thousandfold 
magnifying^,  are  scrupulously  examining  the  structure  of  a 
butterfly's  wing,  and  pouring  over  thousands  of  musty 
tomes  to  find  the  true  meaning  of  a  new  Sanscrit,  Chinese, 
or  Iberian  language,  or  at  present  consumedly  absorbed,  as 
only  Teutonics  can  be,  in  the  study  of  the  very  languages 
of  this  Alta  California  and  Arizona,  as  spoken  by  their  abo 
rigines  from  Behring'  s  Straits  to  Cape  San  Lucas.  One  of 
the  eminent  American  authors  in  this  latter  line,  and  well 
known  in  California  from  1851  to  1860,  as  engaged  in  public 
employments  in  this  State,  and  in  Oregon  and  Washington, 
is  George  Gibbes,  whose  works  on  the  Indian  tribes  of  the 
Pacific  domain,  all  original  essays  and  investigations,  have 
been  several  times  referred  to  in  the  Bulletin.  In  July  last, 
copies  were  received  here  of  his  treatises  on  the  languages 
of  the  Clallam  and  Lummi  clans  of  Puget  Sound,  published 
in  Shea' s  series  of  Indian  Linguistics,  which  has  now  at 
tained  its  eleventh  volume,  and  is  well  known  in  Europe 
and  America  as  one  of  unique  and  recondite  merit  in  philo 
logical  science.  The  new  volume  of  Gibbes' s  consists  of 
some  nine  hundred  words  of  Clallam  and  twelve  hundred 
words  of  Lummi,  which  will  be  found  of  much  practical 
use  to  the  settlers  of  Puget  Sound  in  their  intercourse  with 
the  Indians  of  all  those  sections,  and  of  Vancouver  Island. 
By  this,  some  three  thousand  people  can  be  communicated 
with  in  their  native  tongue,  even  as  high  up  as  Fraser 
River,  and  with  his  last  year's  volume  of  Chinook-English 
jargon  (one  thousand  words  and  phrases),  which  is  a  greatly 
amended  and  improved  treatise  of  all  that  had  been  written 


166  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

on  the  subject  before,  the  trader,  explorer,  and  miner  is 
greatly  assisted  in  his  objects.  Gibbes  is  known  in  Califor 
nia  letters  as  the  author  of  valuable  notes  on  the  north 
coast  California  tribes,  while  in  service  with  the  Indian 
Superintendent,  R.  McKee,  in  his  expedition  to  Mendocino 
and  Klamath,  in  1851,  published  by  the  Government  in 
School  craft' s  volumes.  In  1862,  in  connection  with  Mr. 
Shea,  formerly  a  Professor  in  St.  John's  College,  New  York, 
and  well  known  for  his  excellent  histories  of  the  Catholic 
missions  and  churches  in  the  United  States,  Gibbes  pub 
lished  a  translation  from  the  French  of  Pandosy's  grammar 
and  dictionary  of  the  Yakamas  of  the  Columbia ;  and  he 
has  now  going  through  the  press  in  New  York  a  dictionary 
of  the  Nisqually  tongue  of  Puget  Sound.  Since  1861,  he 
has  been  employed  on  a  work  of  extended  dimensions  on 
the  Indian  nations  between  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  and 
Behring's  Straits,  including  those  from  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains  to  the  ocean,  for  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  for 
which  his  voluminous  observations  on  the  Indian  tribes  of 
Stevens' s  railroad  exploration  of  1853,  on  the  northern  line, 
contained  in  the  first  volume  of  those  surveys,  and  his  offi 
cial  services  in  Campbell's  survey  of  the  British  Columbia 
and  Nebraska  boundary  of  1860,  amply  qualify  him. 
Beside  these  efforts,  he  is  now  collecting  material  for  an 
ethnological  chart  of  all  the  Indian  races  of  the  Pacific 
domain,  to  be  published  in  connection  with  those  of  other 
gentlemen,  whose  labors  will  include  all  Mexico,  Central 
America,  and  the  entire  of  North  America,  from  Panama 
to  Hudson' s  Bay.  We  can,  therefore,  say  that  Gibbes  is 
truly  a  hard-working  author,  and  his  works  a  credit  to  Cal 
ifornia. — San  Franeicso  Bulletin. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  167 


THE    VALLEY    OF    THE    AMAZON. 

IN  A  LECTURE  BEFORE  THE  BROOKLYN  MERCANTILE  LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION,  PROFESSOR 

AGASSIZ  SAID: 

iHE  Amazon  is  not  a  stream  ;  it  is  a  submerged 
plain,  about  three  thousand  miles  in  length  and 
five  hundred  to  seven  hundred  miles  in  width, 
and  entirely  occupied  by  a  fresh- water  basin, 
through  which  the  river  flows  from  the  Andes 
to  the  Atlantic,  and  which  is  overgrown  by  the 
most  luxurious  vegetation  upon  earth.  To  form  an  idea  of 
the  Amazon  we  must  discard  the  idea  of  a  sloping  valley, 
in  the  center  of  which  flows  a  stream.  It  is  but  one  exten 
sive  plain,  even  and  flat.  The  slope  of  the  plain  or  valley 
of  the  Amazon  does  not  exceed  240  feet  from  the  borders  of 
Peru  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  It  ought  rather  to  be  called  a 
fresh-water  ocean  with  innumerable  branches  pouring  into 
the  Atlantic.  And  so  combined  is  it  with  the  Atlantic  that 
it  is  difficult  to  tell  where  one  begins  and  the  other  ends. 
Sailing  along  the  coast,  and  long  before  you  see  any  indi 
cations  of  a  continent,  you  'are  already  in  the  turbid  waters 
of  a  mighty  stream.  Thirty  miles  off  the  coast  you  are  in  it, 
and  as  you  advance,  the  blue  waters  of  the  ocean  disap 
pear,  until  at  last  you  are  in  a  broad  expanse  of  muddy 
waters.  This  is  the  Amazon.  At  the  point  where  it  meets 
the  ocean  it  is  150  miles  wide.  The  mass  of  waters  is  so 
great  that  2,000  miles  above  its  mouth  it  contains  innumer 
able  islands,  forming  one  great  system,  rendering  it  difficult 
to  tell  which  channel  constitutes  the  river.  One  of  the 
islands  (Marajo)  at  the  lower  extremity  of  the  Amazon  is 
half  as  large  as  Ireland,  and  a  channel  of  the  river  on  one 
side  of  this  island  is  so  wide  that  in  sailing  up  it  you  can 
not  see  either  shore.  You  sail  up.  the  Amazon  1,200  miles 
before  it  has  the  appearance  of  a  channel,  with  banks  indi 
cating  that  it  is  a  river.  The  tide  of  the  ocean  is  felt  400 
miles  above  the  city  of  Para.  The  tributaries  of  the  Ama 
zon  are  as  colossal  in  their  character  as  the  river  itself. 
From  Para  to  the  borders  of  Peru  is  2,000  miles,  and  at  the 


0? 

I7BRSITT] 


168  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

borders  of  Peru  the  Amazon  lias  tributaries  which  may  be 
navigated  by  the  largest  vessels  for  five  hundred  miles 
above  the  point  where  they  intersect  the  Amazon.  The 
Amazon  flows  from  west  to  east  in  nearly  the  same  latitude 
and  nearly  under  the  equator.  The  tributaries  that  inter 
sect  it  on  the  northern  bank  are  swollen  different  seasons 
from  those  that  intersect  it  on  the  south  bank,  owing  to  the 
different  months  in  which  the  rainy  season  occurs  in  the 
regions  through  which  they  flow,  so  that  when  the  northern 
tributaries  are  swollen  by  the  rains  the  southern  are  low. 
The  consequence  of  this  is  that  the  main  channel  of  the 
Amazon  is  shifted  from  right  to  left  at  different  seasons  a 
distance  of  eighty  miles.  The  whole  of  this  immense  plain 
or  valley  of  the  Amazon  is  one  uninterrupted  forest,  and  so 
dense  is  the  vegetation  that  it  may  be  said  to  be  impenetrable. 
The  vegetation  seems  to  arise  out  of  the  water.  Scarcely 
anywhere  in  this  valley  are  hills  or  mountains  to  be  seen — 
the  highest  is  not  over  one  thousand  feet.  All  of  them 
have  flat  tops,  presenting  a  very  remarkable  appearance. 
The  lecturer  said  he  was  curious  to  ascertain  the  origin  of 
these  hills,  and  visited  many  of  them  for  that  purpose.  He 
found  them  composed  mostly  of  gravel  and  sand  deposited 
in  strata,  and  he  became  satisfied  that  they  were  once  far 
more  numerous  and  extensive,  and  occupied  no  inconsidera 
ble  portion  of  the  valley.  There  was  no  other  way  of 
explaining  these  hills  than  on  the  theory  that  the  water  was 
at  one  time  so  high  as  to  cover  them,  and  had  gradually 
fallen  away,  leaving  the  hills,  which  had  been  deposited 
under  the  water,  standing.  Thus  the  whole  basin  of  the 
Amazon,  three  thousand  miles  long  and  from  five  hundred 
to  seven  hundred  miles  wide,  was  once  flooded  with  water. 
He  considered  these  hills  as  standing  witnesses  to  the  fact 
that  extensive  fields  of  ice  and  glaciers  once  occupied  the 
region  of  Brazil  and  the  tropics,  which  showed  what 
changes  had  taken  place  between  a  comparatively  recent 
date  and  the  present  time.  But  to  return  to  the  Amazon 
and  its  general  aspect.  The  vegetation  of  the  Amazonian 
region  consisted  in  part  of  tropical  forests,  which,  unlike 
our  forests,  did  not  contain  clusters  of  the  same  family,  but 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  169 

groups  of  various  trees.  There  was  not  an  oak,  maple,  elm, 
or  poplar  in  the  valley  of  the  Amazon,  nor  a  plant  allied  to 
those  which  form  our  forests. 

There  were  remarkable  specimens  of  trees  which  belong 
ed  to  the  same  family  as  the  locust,  one  of  the  peculiarities 
of  which  was  to  have  leaves  that  are  not  simple,  but  along 
which  are  lateral  leaflets.     The  myrtle,  which  was  a  small 
shrub  here,  performed  an  important  function  in  that  region, 
furnishing  a  variety  of  fruit  as  diverse,  luscious,  pleasant,  and 
refreshing  as  those  of  the  family  to  which  our  rose  belonged 
with  us — the  pear,  cherry,  apricot,  peach,  plum,  and  almond. 
The  great  Brazilian  chestnut  was  the  first  of  that  family. 
Its  fruit  was  about  the  size  of  two  fists,  contained  a  num 
ber  of  triangular  nuts,  and  the  tree  itself— one  of  the  colossi 
of  the  forests  of  Brazil — grew  to  a  height  of  one  hundred 
and  eighty  or  two  hundred  feet.     Others  allied  to  it  bore 
fruit  of  still  larger  dimensions,  some  of  which  were  known 
as  "monkeys'  spoons"  and  "monkeys'  hats,"  and  these 
represented,  as  it  were,  the  almonds  of  the  rose-bush  family. 
Then  there  was   the  guava,    also   one  of  the  representa 
tives  of  the  myrtle  family.     Its  fruit  was    not  unlike  the 
quince.     There  was,    too,  a   variety  of  plum   and  cherry- 
like   fruits   to   be  found.      Let    us    now  advance   a   step 
further  in  describing  the    aspect  of   the   forests   in  these 
tropical  regions.     A  remarkable  feature  of  the  forests  of 
the  Amazon  was  the  immense  number  of  vines  and  parasit 
ical  plants  that  were  seen  clinging  to  the  trees  and  inter 
lacing  all  their  branches.      So  dense   do  they  make  the 
forest  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  penetrate  it  outside  of 
the  Indian  trails.     And  then  the  beauty  and  regularity  of 
these  vines  and  parasites  was  one  of  the  most  charming 
features  of  the  scenery.     It  will  be  forever  impossible  to 
build  roads  in   the   valley   of  the  Amazon.     The   natural 
roads  are  already  built,  and  they  consist  of  the  innumerable 
streams  of  water  that  ramify  the  whole  country,  and  which 
can  be  traversed  by  steam  or  sail.     The  present  population 
of  this  valley  is  only  250,000,  including  Indians,  Europeans, 
and  Americans.     It  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  countries- 
healthy,  rich,  and  productive— and  he  should  not  wonder 


170  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

if  the  time  came  when  it  would  be  inhabited  by  25,000,000 
people.  At  present,  however,  it  was  given  over  to  an  indo 
lent  race  who  could  never  appreciate  its  beauties  or  develop 
its  wealth.  He  desired  to  correct  a  prevailing  notion  that 
because  this  country  lay  in  the  tropics  it  must  therefore  be 
unhealthy.  It  was  generally  supposed  to  be  hot,  malarious, 
and  sickly,  but  it  was  not  so.  The  trade  winds  sent  forth  a 
constant  gentle  breeze  through  the  whole  year.  Except  in 
the  middle  of  the  day,  the  temperature  was  never  oppress 
ively  hot.  The  usual  temperature  was  eighty-four  de 
grees,  and  it  seldom  reached  ninety  degrees.  The  nights 
were  always  cool.  The  fevers  that  prevail  in  some  places 
came  not  from  the  climate,  but  from  the  habits  of  the  people, 
who  do  not  take  proper  care  of  themselves.  Where  the 
climate  is  warm  it  is  not  uncomfortable  to  be  wet,  and 
people  will  allow  their  clothing  to  get  wet  through  and 
become  dry  upon  them,  and  if  they  are  seized  with  fever  the 
climate  is  the  cause.  Those  who  were  wiser  undressed 
before  a  rain  storm  and  dressed  afterward,  and  in  that  way 
avoided  a  bath  in  their  clothing.  [A  laugh.]  All  the  rich 
productions  which  our  country  obtain  from  this  region  come 
from  the  forests.  India  rubber  is  obtained  from  a  wild  tree 
which  everybody  taps.  The  gatherers  of  india  rubber  go 
into  the  forest  and  sleep  upon  the  wet  ground,  and  live 
upon  badly  prepared  fish,  and  when  they  get  malarious 
diseases  it  is  the  climate  and  not  their  way  of  life  which  is 
charged  with  being  the  cause.  Prof.  Agassiz  was  satisfied 
that  fortunes  could  be  acquired  in  the  valley  of  the  Amazon 
with  comparatively  small  labor.  With  regard  to  timber, 
he  had  seen  on  exhibition  at  Para,  one  hundred  and  seven 
teen  kinds  of  costly  timber,  some  of  them  of  the  most  beau 
tiful  grain,  which  had  been  cut  down  from  a  piece  of  ground 
half  a  mile  square.  He  had  himself  brought  home  a  mere 
accidental  collection  of  over  three  hundred  different  kinds 
collected  in  the  valley  of  the  Amazon— accidental,  because 
botany  was  not  the  object  of  his  survey.  What  was  true 
of  timber  was  equally  true  of  textile  fabrics',  was  equally 
true  of  the  various  kinds  of  fruit  which  might  be  prepared 
and  made  to  contribute  to  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  171 

So,  if  that  country  could  be  settled  by  an  enterprising 
population  he  had  no  doubt  it  would  rapidly  rise  to  wealth 
and  prosperity ;  and  until  that  time  arrived  let  those  who 
would  enjoy  the  stillness  and  grandeur  of  nature  ascend  the 
Amazon  a  couple  of  thousand  miles.  It  can  be  done  with  as 
much  ease  and  comfort  as  you  can  ascend  the  Rhine.  Good 
steamers  ascend  to  the  borders  of  Peru  once  or  twice  a 
month,  and  every  comfort  is  afforded  the  traveler.  Ladies 
especially  should  take  the  trip,  and  in  the  luxurious  shades 
of  the  Amazon  avoid  the  dogdays  of  our  northern  climate. 
It  was  only  by  going  there  that  impressions  could  be  gained 
of  the  grandeur  and  beauty  of  nature  such  as  no  pen  or 
tongue  could  portray. 

MONO    LAKE THE    DEAD    SEA    OF    CALIFORNIA. 


(f  E  find  a  very  well  written  and  doubtless  correct 
description  of  this  body  of  water  and  the  adja 
cent  scenery  in  the  Sonora  Democrat.  The 
waters  of  the  lake  and  the  surrounding  country 
are  not  unlike  those  in  the  region  of  the  Dead 
Sea  in  Palestine,  and  will  be  regarded  among 
the  curiosities  of  California. — Sacramento  Union,  Novem 
ber,  1859. 

A  curious  theme  for  investigation  is  presented  in  Mono 
Lake,  which,  being  surrounded  by  volcanic  mountains,  ap 
pears  to  be  the  depressed  crater  of  a  volcano  filled  with 
water.  This  lake  has  in  its  center  two  islands,  one  of  which 
appears  to  be  a  long  ridge  of  white  lava,  and  the  other  a 
black,  well  defined  crater  rising  some  fifty  feet  above  the 
surface  of  the  water.  The  first  is  called  on  some  maps 
Grand  Island,  and  the  last  Beauty  Island. 

As  in  other  alkaline  regions,  the'  traveler  in  the  vicinity 
of  this  lake  is  affected  by  constant  illusions.  When  he 
first  sees  its  waters  from  the  mountains  north  of  Monoville 
they  appear  right  at  his  feet,  and  he  doubts  not  but  a  few 
moments'  walk  will  take  him  to  their  shores ;  but  his 
patience  is  overcome  as  he  travels  on,  and  finds  the  dis- 


172  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

tance  to  be  a  long  seven  miles.  From  every  point  from 
which  the  lake  is  visible,  whether  from  the  distance  of 
seven  or  twenty  miles,  still  it  appears  to  be  close  by  you. 
This  body  of  water  looks  to  be  one  or  two  miles  in  diam 
eter,  but  in  passing  around  its  circumference  to  the  starting 
point  you  pass  over  a  distance  of  ninety  miles.  The  diam 
eter  of  the  lake  is,  therefore,  thirty  miles,  giving  a  superfi 
cial  area  of  675  square  miles. 

The  two  islands  above  noticed  appear  to  be  close  to  the 
shore  you  approach,  but  as  you  proceed  up  the  lake  on  the 
west  or  east  side,  they  seem  to  follow  your  steps  until 
fifteen  or  twenty  miles  are  passed  over,  when  they  are 
slowly  left  in  the  rear.  A  gentleman  residing  in  Sonora, 
Major  Patrick,  assisted  a  few  months  since  in  constructing  a 
boat  to  visit  these  islands,  believing  a  trip  to  them  would 
prove  to  be  a  short  pleasure  excursion.  But  the  enterprise 
lost  much  of  its  attraction  by  the  fact  that  the  boat  was 
rowed  twenty  miles  before  reaching  the  nearer  one  of 
them. 

This  lake  and  the  region  surrounding  it  come  as  near  to 
the  fictions  of  enchantment  as  any  other  known  realities. 
The  illusions  of  distance  and  other  phenomena,  presently  to 
be  noticed,  will  convince  any  one  of  this  fact. 

Though  its  waters  are  insufferably  alkaline,  yet  the  mar 
gins  of  the  lake,  whereon  the  sun  exerts  its  generating  in 
fluence,  produce  millions  of  indigenous  flies,  on  which  and 
on  their  larvce  and  pupa,  ducks,  hogs,  and  Indians  are  sus 
tained  and  fattened.  Even  a  real  Christian  told  me  when  he 
was  there  that  he  had  eaten  the  worm  (pupa),  and  found  it 
very  palatable,  it  "tasting  very  much  like  sardines."  Not 
a  fish,  however,  nor  frog,  nor  other  living  thing,  except 
the  flies  in  question,  lives  within  these  waters.  In  fact,  the 
lake  is  appropriately  named,  for  instead  of  confining  the 
attention  to  the  meaning  of  the  Spanish  adjective  mono,  as  I 
did  last  week,  I  would  take  the  original  Greek  word  monos, 
which  means,  moreover,  "  deserted,  forsaken."  Even  good 
water-dogs  will  never  enter  for  the  second  time  this  lake  to 
bring  out  the  killed  or  wounded  ducks  ;  it  is  truly  a  "  de 
serted  lake." 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  173 

The  ducks  are  found  only  around  the  mouths  of  fresh 
.  water  streams,  three  of  which  fall  into  the  western  side  of 
the  lake.  At  one  place,  also  on  the  west  side,  about  one 
hundred  yards  from  the  land,  a  fresh-water  spring  boils  up 
from  the  bottom  of  the  lake,  presenting  a  convex  surface  of 
water.  Here  the  ducks  congregate  in  thousands,  laying 
themselves,  struggling  and  sporting  in  this  fresh  fountain 
as  it  bursts  through  the  bitter,  lacustrine  fluid. 

As  indicated  by  the  shores,  very  little  rise  ever  occurs  in 
the  waters  of  this  lake.  The  evaporation  from  so  large  a 
surface,  and  in  so  dry  a  climate,  disposes  constantly  of  all 
the  supplies  of  water  of  which  it  is  the  recipient.  Beside 
the  three  large  creeks  emptying  into  the  west  side,  Mc 
Lean's  River  empties  into  the  north  and  Crosby's  River  into 
the  south  side.  Moreover,  thousands  of  springs  and  rivu 
lets  all  around  the  lake  are  busy  in  contributing  their  sup 
plies  to  this  singular  body  of  water.  The  water  is  transpa 
rent,  and  when  closely  inspected  it  appears  as  if  infused 
with  clear  oil.  The  surface  of  the  lake  is  generally  smooth, 
though  here  and  there,  over  its  vast  extent,  ripples  may  be 
seen  curling  and  playing  in  the  strong  breeze.  There  is 
rarely  any  thing  like  a  wave  on  its  surface,  as  its  oily 
nature  prevents  any  friction  of  the  wind. 

The  flies  above  noticed  are  amphibious.  Two  and  three 
feet  under  water  they  are  seen  clustered  on  stones ;  and, 
rising  to  the  surface,  they  sport  awhile  in  the  air  and  on  the 
water,  going  down  into  it  with  the  same  freedom  as  they 
came  out.  These  flies  are  classed,  I  believe,  with  the  insects 
known  as  the  neuroptera  (or  nerve  wing),  and  their  family 
or  species  is  called  epJiemeridce,.  They  exist  in  the  larva  and 
pupa  conditions  for  two  or  three  years  in  the  water  ;  but 
after  progressing  to  the  imago,  or  perfect  form,  they  imme 
diately  fill  their  function  of  propagation  and  "die,  leaving 
the  ground  covered  to  such  a  thickness  as  to  make  it  worth 
while  to  cart  them  away  for  manure."  (Vide  Reese's 
Zoology,  pp.  33-4).  However,  the  flies  which  are  gener 
ated  around  the  borders  of  Mono  Lake,  prove  to  be,  as  above 
said,  an  excellent  article  for  animal  subsistence.  Millions  of 
ducks  become  as  fat  as  butter  on  this  food  ;  the  Indians 


174  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

who  feed  on  them  look  as  fine  as  if  they  luxuriated  con 
stantly  on  the  savory  viands  of  our  fashionable  restaurants  ; 
the  hogs  kept  on  the  borders  of  the  lake  to  feed  on  these  flies 
become  exceedingly  fat  ;  and  indeed  it  is  not  unreasonable 
to  suppose  that  the  miners  and  others  who  settle  there  may 
yet  adopt  them  as  an  article  of  diet  in  preference  to  "sar 
dines''  and  costly  luxuries.  But  this  subject  of  flies  and 
their  metamorphosis,  classification,  &c.,  must  be  left  for  the 
study  of  the  competent  entomologist. 

The  shores  of  this  lake,  and  the  vegetable  matter  in  their 
vicinity,  are  frosted  over  with  an  efflorescence  of  snowy 
alkali.  It  is  said  this  substance  renders  bread  very  light 
and  delightful.  It  is  probable  that  this  alkali  is  simply  the 
sulphate  of  soda,  as  it  possesses  a  cooling,  nauseous,  and 
bitter  taste.  Moreover,  the  water  of  the  lake  contains,  doubt 
less,  sulphur  in  solution.  Its  smell  indicates  this.  I  have 
submitted  a  bottle  of  this  water  to  our  distinguished  citi 
zen,  Dr.  Snell,  who  will  in  due  time  correctly  analyze  it. 

Mono  Lake  belongs  doubtless  to  that  great  system  of  soda, 
alkaline,  and  sulphur  lakes  found  east  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
Mountains,  in  what  is  called  the  Great  Basin  region.  Like 
all  those  lakes  it  has  no  outlet,  and  it  is  surrounded  by 
"wide-spread  traces  of  volcanoism,"  such  as  extinct  craters, 
hot  springs,  disrupted  mountains,  and  a  burnt,  sterile  soil. 
Its  shores  are  covered  or  thickly  paved  with  rounded  ba 
saltic  and  felspathic  stones.  No  silicious  gravel  or  sand 
occurs  there,  the  silex  having  been  dissolved  by  the  alka 
line  lake  water. 

Mono  Lake  is  more  literally  a  "dead  sea"  than  the  sea  of 
Sodom.  According  to  Dr.  Clarke,  that  "sea  swarms  with 
fishes,  and  shells  abound  on  its  shores."  Mono  Lake  has 
neither.  The  extreme  length  and  breadth  of  the  Dead  Sea, 
according  to  Mariti,  are  75  by  16  miles,  giving  a  superficial  area 
of  600  square  miles.  Whereas,  Mono  Lake  contains  675  square 
miles.  The  rivers  Jordan  and  Arnon,  and  the  brook  Ki- 
dron,  beside  many  rivulets,  empty  into  the  Dead  Sea.  Into 
Mono  Lake,  McLane's  River  falls  from  the  north,  and  Cros 
by'  s  River  from  the  south,  and  three  large  brooks  or  creeks 
fall  into  it  from  the  west,  beside  numerous  rivulets  and  springs 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  175 

all  around  its  borders.  But  this  lake  not  only  responds  to 
the  Greek  epithet  monos,  as  being  "alone,  solitary,  deserted, 
forsaken,"  but  it  also  answers  to  the  same  adjective  as 
explained  in  the  Spanish  as  being  "pretty,  nice,  neat." 
The  lake  takes  as  many  shapes  as  the  points  differ  from 
which  you  view  it.  From  the  west  side,  about  ten  miles 
from  its  northern  limit,  it  appears  like  a  beautiful  crescent, 
its  horns  curving  delicately  around  you  on  the  right  and 
left.  From  the  north,  it  appears  to  be  nearly  circular,  like 
the  full  moon,  the  islands  in  its  waters  strikingly  represent 
ing  the  clouded  spots  on  that  planet.  From  the  east,  it 
appears  to  have  no  particular  shape,  but  it  stretches  off 
irregularly  among  the  mountains.  But  from  all  these  points 
you  see  the  whole  lake,  and  it  appears  to  be  only  a  small 
body  of  water,  no  more  than  one  or  two  miles  in  diameter. 
Wherever  springs  and  streams  favor  vegetation  around  the 
valley  of  this  lake,  you  will  find  patches  of  grazing  grounds, 
the  grass  being  mostly  coarse  and  wiry,  but  said  to  be 
nutritious.  The  predominating  vegetation,  however,  all 
over  this  cold,  sterile  region  is  sage-brush. 

There  is  little  or  no  echo  around  this  lake,  and  indeed  it 
is  difficult  to  understand  a  person  talking  at  a  little  distance. 
A  dreamy,  spell-like  spirit  seems  to  pervade  the  atmos 
phere.  The  smooth,  glassy  surface  of  the  waters,  the  up 
heaved,  disrupted  volcanic  mountains  surrounding  the  lake, 
looking  down,  as  it  were,  into  this  abyss  of  their  ejection  ; 
the  illusions  of  vision  and  the  whitened  shores,  thickly 
columned  in  many  places  with  vesicular  lava,  which  looks 
like  monuments  erected  to  the  "mighty  dead,"  all  conspire 
to  impress  the- mind  with  the  idea  of  a  fictitious  scene  por 
trayed  by  the  pencil  of  an  omnipotent  hand. 

J.  R.  Y. 


176  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


AN    ANNIVERSARY. 
From  the  Alia  Californian,  Feb.  28,  1859. 


ET  this  day  not  pass  by  into  the  great  ocean  of 
time,  and  be  numbered  among  those  that  were, 
unnoticed,  for  it  is  an  anniversary  worthy  of 
some  emphatic  testimonial  of  observance  at  the 
hands  of  this  people.  On  this  day,  just  ten 
years  ago,  the  first  wave  of  the  immigration  from  the 
older  States,  moved  by  the  common  impulse  imparted  to 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  fellow-countrymen,  as  well  as 
other  of  the  world's  people,  reached  these  shores  and 
began  the  work  of  building  up  a  majestic  empire  of  free 
men,  upon  the  outmost  western  verge  of  the  continent.  It 
is  the  anniversary  of  the  arrival  of  the  steamer  California 
in  the  harbor  of  San  Francisco  just  ten  years  ago,  with  her 
load  of  living  freight,  whose  names  are  recorded  in  another 
column. 

Of  a  truth  it  may  be  said  of  them,  they  were  the  pioneers 
in  the  establishment  of  a  new  State  upon  this  side  of  the 
continent.  Others  had  preceded  them,  who  had  been 
moved  by  different  impulses  to  seek  out  a  new  home  here, 
and  who  perhaps  may  better  be  entitled  to  wear  the  honor 
able  appellation  of  pioneers,  from  having  sought  this  land 
under  none  of  those  excitable  and  selfish  motives,  if  we 
please  to  call  them  so,  which  the  subsequent  discovery  of 
gold  created  in  the  minds  of  so  many  thousands.^  Theirs 
are,  however,  honors  that  belong  to  them  alone,  an'd  which 
we 'would  not,  knowingly,  seek  to  deprive  them  of.  We 
are  writing  now  only  of  that  great  march  of  empire  that,  in  a 
few  brief  months,  took  up  its  majestic  way  along  the  track 
less  ocean,  over  broad  deserts  and  across  forbidding  moun 
tains,  through  malarious  jungles  and  tropical  swamps, 
braving  disease,  hardship,  and  perils  of  every  kind,  on  its 
final  destination  to  these  auriferous  shores— that  tide  of 
population  that  had  its  origin  and  its  growth, 

"  As  when  the  wind,  ascending  by  degrees, 
Disturbs  the  whitening  surface  of  the  seas, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  177 

The  billows  float  in  order  to  the  shore, 
The  wave  behind  rolls  on  the  wave  before, 
'Till,  with  the  growing  storm  the  deeps  arise, 
Foam  o'er  the  rocks,  and  thunder  to  the  skies." 

So  began  the  process  of  populating  this  great  and  power 
ful  State,  ten  years  ago  to-day,  when  the  California  came 
to  an  anchor  in  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  ;  so  did  it  grow 
and  swell  into  a  vast  and  mighty  multitude,  outvieing  all 
that  the  world  had  e'er  before  witnessed,  in  the  splendid 
and  imposing  results  which  followed  ;  and  is  it  too  much  to 
say,  all  that  will  e'er  again  be  beheld  of  a  similar  character, 
throughout  the  long  vista  of  coming  time  ! 

More  than  three  hundred  souls,  who  had  for  months  pur 
sued  their  trackless  way  along  the  mighty  deeps,  ten  years 
ago  to-day,  first  stepped  foot  upon  the  sand  beach  that  lay 
along  in  front  of  the  little  hamlet  of  Yerba  Buena,  consti 
tuting  the  vanguard  of  an  army  of  free  and  industrious 
people,  who  came,  not  as  conquerors  to  overrun,  lay 
waste,  pillage  and  spoil  the  land,  but  to  build  up  a  new 
empire  upon  a  foundation  of  enterprise  and  freedom,  to  rear 
aloft  a  commonwealth  that  was  destined,  in  its  future  con 
nection  with,  and  relation  toward  the  world,  to  wield  a 
golden  scepter,  potent  and  powerful  in  guiding  and  con 
trolling  the  tide  of  commercial  intercourse  between  all  the 
great  nations  of  the  earth. 

There  are  few  among  us — claiming  to  be  old  residents  of 
California — who  will  not  recognize  in  the  list  comprising 
this  band  of  early  comers  many  a  familiar  name,  which  we 
do  now,  or  have  at  one  time,  numbered  among  our  fellow- 
citizens.  True  it  is,  that 'theirs  has  been  the  common  lot  of 
the  masses  who  were  among  the  pioneers  of  California,  and 
time  has  been  busy  with  them,  as  with  us,  working  changes 
which  we  will  not  attempt  to  follow,  adding  blessings  and 
misfortunes  alike,  with  the  same  unpitying  and  indiscrimi 
nate  distribution,  the  full  share  of  which  is  allotted  to  man 
kind  all  alike,  over  the  wide,  wide  world,  whithersoever 
we  may  go,  in  chase  of  fame  and  fortune.  Ten  years  ago, 
on  this  auspicious  day,  the  good  steamer  first  parted  with 
her  sharp  prow  the  glistening  water  that  slept  in  the  morn- 

12 


178  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

ing  sunlight  within  the  two  walls  that  comprise  the  Golden 
Gate.  Ask  of  one  whom  you  may  meet  in  your  walks 
upon  the  street  to-day,  who  belonged  to  this  band,  and  he 
will  tell  you  with  what  feelings  of  ambitious  hope  and  joy 
he  first  gazed  upon  the  stars  and  stripes  that  floated  over 
the  barracks  of  the  Presidio — nestled  in  the  little  green 
nook  upon  the  right,  as  the  steamer  passed  on  up  toward 
the  spot  now  occupied  by  a  great  and  populous  city.  He 
will  tell  you  what  feelings  of  grateful  emotion  that  flag  in 
spired,  and  how  eloquently  it  spoke  to  him  of  home  and  the 
fatherland.  Spring,  as  now,  had  then  mantled  the  hills 
with  her  emerald  tapestry.  The  deer,  and  the  herds  of  the 
thrifty  rancheros,  enjoyed  a  joint  occupancy  of  their  slopes, 
and  of  the  valleys,  and  nibbled  the  tender  blades  of  the 
upspringing  grass  unmolested  and  undisturbed,  where  now 
farms  and  well  cultivated  fields  lie  spread  out  in  the  sun 
light,  like  the  rich  mosaic  handiwork  of  oriental  nations. 

We  need  not  dwell  upon  the  vast  changes  which  time 
since  then  has  wrought  in  this  prosperous  land,  for  truly 
do  "  we  spend  our  years  as  a  tale  that  is  told,"  and  with 
this  tale  all  are  familiar.  With  its  closing  period  is  com 
pleted  the  first  decade  of  years,  numbering  from  that  grand 
-epoch  in  the  world's  history  from  which  dates  the  so-called 
4 'gold  excitement"  that  resulted  in  peopling  California,  and 
made,  in  a  few  brief  months,  a  great  and  prosperous  State 
out  of  a  previously  but  little  known  and  sparsely  populated 
territory,  that  had  for  centuries  slept  in  waste  and  solitude, 
bearing  in  its  bosom  wealth  enough  to  have  laden  all  the 
ships  of  Tarshish  ten  thousand  times  over,  yet  undis 
covered  and  unknown,  kept  from  'the  knowledge  of  man 
kind  until  the  allotted  time  appointed  by  an  all- wise  God, 
doubtless  with  a  special  and  blessed  purpose. 

"The  days  of  our  years  are  threescore  and  ten  ;  and  if 
by  reason  of  strength  they  be  fourscore  years,  yet  is  their 
strength  labor  and  sorrow  ;  for  it  is  soon  cut  off  and  we 
fly  away."  Thus,  according  to  the  words  of  the  Psalmist, 
has  passed  away,  a  wide  period  of  an  existence,  during  this 
decade  of  years  which  the  dawning  of  this  day  completes. 
It  has  brought  with  it  care,  sorrow,  and  tribulation  for  most 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  179 

of  us  all,  as  well  as  for  those  who  first  set  foot  upon  these 
shores  ten  years  ago  to-day— it  has  given  happiness  unal 
loyed  to  none.  If  we  take  this  band  of  early  comers  as  a 
type  of  those  who  succeeded  them,  all  upon  the  same  com 
mon  errand— the  acquisition  of  fortune  and  happiness— we 
shall  find,  as  their  good  and  evil  fortunes  have  been,  so, 
too,  have  been  our  own.  The  grim  Reaper  with  his  relent 
less  sickle,  has  not  been  more  busy  with  them  than  with  us, 
nor  has  their  lot  been  more  varied,  and  deeper  tinted  with 
misfortune  and  bitterness  than  our  own. 

As  they  have  been,  so  Ave,  too,  are  crowned  with  these 
years  of  hope,  fear,  joy,  misfortune,  and  the  thousand  and 
one  mixed  experiences  of  California  life ;  so  we,  too,  may 
profit  if  we  will,  by  the  lesson  which  this  anniversary  affords. 

While,  therefore,  we  contemplate  with  a  just  pride  and 
pleasure,  the  proud  empire  of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
which  we  have,  during  this  period,  so  firmly  established 
upon  these  shores,  let  us  not  forget  how  rapid  has  been 
this  flight  of  time,  and  how  much  of  misfortune  has  fallen 
from  its  wings  upon  us  all,  because  of  our  own  errors,  in 
the  pathway  along  which  we  chose  to  wend  our  way, 
during  so  much  of  existence  as  is  comprised  in  the  decade 
just  closed. 


ORIGIN    OF    THE    WESTERN    PRAIRIES. 

M.  LEO  L&SQUEKEu£,  the  well-known  geologist,  who  has 
carefully  studied  the  prairies  of  the  Mississippi  valley, 
ascribes  their  general  formation  to  the  agency  of  water. 
He  says  :— 

"All  the  prairies  still  in  a  state  of  formation  along  the 
great  lakes  of  the  north  are  nothing  else  but  marshes  slowly 
passing  to  dry  land  by  slow  recession  of  water.  When 
land  is  continually  covered  by  low  stagnant  w^ater,  its  only 
vegetation  is  that  of  the  rushes  and  of  the  sedges.  When 
the  same  land  is  alternately  subjected  to  long  inundations 
and  to  dryness,  during  some  months  of  the  year,  the  same 
plants  continue  to  cover  it.  By  their  decomposition  these 


180  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

marshy  plants  produce  a  peculiar  ground,  either  black, 
light,  permeable  when  it  is  mixed  with  sand,  as  it  is  near 
the  borders  of  the  lakes,  or  hard,  cold,  impermeable  when 
it  is  mixed  with  clay  or  muddy  alluvium,  as  in  some 
marshes  underlaid  by  shales  or  clay,  or  along  the  banks  of 
some  rivers.  Land  continually  covered  with  stagnant  water 
can  not  produce  any  trees,  because  the  trees  require  for 
their  growth,  like  most  of  the  terrestrial  plants,  the  intro 
duction  of  atmospheric  air  to  their  roots.  Neither  do  trees 
germinate  and  grow  on  a  ground  alternately  covered  with 
stagnant  water  and  exposed  to  diyness  for  some  months  of  the 
year.  From  these  considerations,  the  law  of  the  general  for 
mation  of  prairies  can  be  deduced.  While  a  land  or  part  of 
country  is  slowly  passing  from  the  state  of  swamp  or  marsh 
to  the  state  of  dry  land,  the  annual  alternation  of  stagnant 
water  and  dryness  causes  vegetation  of  peculiar  plants, 
which,  by  their  decomposition,  form  a  peculiar  soil  unfa 
vorable  to  the  growth  of  the  trees.  From  this  general  rule 
of  formation,  which  regards  only  the  prairies  of  the  Missis 
sippi  valley,  all  the  different  phenomena  or  peculiar  appear 
ances  of  the  prairies  can  be  easily  explained. 


THE    PIONEER    OVERLAXDERS    OF    1841. 


CORRESPONDENT  sends  us  a  list  of  the 
first  regular  emigration  to  California  of  1841, 
and  we  are  assured  it  is  the  fullest  which  has 
yet  appeared  in  print.  This  enterprise  occa 
sioned  at  the  time  much  excitement  on  the 
Missouri  frontiers,  and  accounts  of  it  were  published  in 
several  of  the  Western  journals,  as  it  was  then  considered 
a  great  undertaking  to  cross  the  Rocky  Mountains  and 
explore  a  new  road  through  the  snowy  ranges  and  howling 
deserts  south  of  the  Columbia,  the  only  well-ascertained 
points  being  the  Great  Salt  Lake  and  the  mystical  St. 
Mary's,  now  Humboldt  River,  so  called  afterward  by  Fre- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  181 

mont.  An  interesting  sketch  of  this  1841  adventure  ap 
peared  a  few  months  after  in  Chambers'  s  Edinburgh  Maga 
zine,  which  seems  to  have  been  written  by  some  one  well 
acquainted  with  all  the  particulars,  and  who  foretold  the 
effects  on  the  future  prospects  of  California.  At  the  period 
of  these  important  events,  the  Western  people  were  much 
excited  by  the  different  works  written  by  Dr.  Gregg  on 
New  Mexico,  and  AVashirigton  Irving  on  the  explorations 
and  tradings  of  Astor'  s  fur  trappers,  and  on  those  of  Capt. 
Bonneville  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  results  of  which 
were  this  emigration  to  California,  and  several  months  after 
that,  to  Oregon,  and  also  from  Texas  to  Santa  Fe.  Our  cor 
respondent  says :  I  have  just  received  the  following  infor 
mation  from  Albert  G.  Toomes,  now  of  Tehama,  who 
formerly  lived  at  Monterey,  and  is  well  known  in  that 
town,  where  he  resided  from  1842  to  1851 : — 

I  sat  down  with  my  old  partner  Thomas  a  few  days  ago 
and  got  talking  of  old  times  in  California,  and  all  that  sort 
of  thing.  It  occurred  to  us  to  make  a  list  of  our  ancient 
companions  in  the  hard  journey  we  made  from  Independ 
ence  a  long  twenty-seven  years  ago,  and,  Sandy,  our  hairs 
are  getting  gray,  and  we  often  remember  those  blessed  old 
bailies  and  mer landers  of  gay  Monterey.  I  claim  that  we 
were  the  first  regular  emigrants  who  ever  started  from  the 
States  to  California,  as  those  who  arrived  in  the  country 
before  us,  dropped  in  by  mere  chance,  as  old  trappers, 
whalemen,  and  sailors  from  the  islands  and  Boston  ships. 
Our  party  was  divided  into  two  companies,  who  left  Inde 
pendence  on  the  6th  of  May,  1841,  and  we  got  into  Califor 
nia  on  the  10th  November  of  the  same  year.  The  first  com 
pany  was  headed  by  Robert  H.  Thomes,  who  crossed  over 
by  the  way  of  Salt  Lake,  and  the  second  was  headed  by 
William  AVorkman,  who  went  by  the  way  of  Santa  Fe  and 
the  middle  route  to  Los  Angeles  ;  and  both  got  into  the 
country  at  nearly  the  same  time. 

We  were  all  armed  with  rifles,  and  mounted  on  horse 
back,  and  had  literally  to  smell  our  way  every  day  of  that 
long,  hard  journey  of  176  days  ;  but  we  arrived  all  safe  and 
hearty,  and  nearly  every  one  of  the  immigrants  mentioned 


182  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

haye  either  died  in  the  State  or  still  reside  here.  But 
I  never  want  to  cross  those  hard  deserts  and  big  mountains 
again,  except  on  the  railroad,  and  you  bet  I  shall  run  over 
to  old  Pike  on  the  4th  of  July,  1870-car,  or  mayhap  on 
those  of  1869,  as  I  hate  salt-water  sailing.  I  have  men 
tioned  in  subjoined  lists  those  of  many  "foreigners,"  then 
so  called,  who  lived  in  California  before  my  time,  but 
several  have  escaped  me,  as  I  have  never  seen  a  proper  list 
of  the  names  of  the  first  immigration.  You  know,  when 
Thomes  and  self  got  our  ranchos  up  here  from  Micheltereno 
and  Jimena,  this  place  was  out  of  the  world,  and  league 
farms  to  be  had  for  the  asking,  but  it  is  quite  different  now. 
The  Indians,  once  so  numerous,  are  all  gone,  and  the  rail 
cars  will  soon  rush  by  our  doors,  and  land  is  worth  $20  per 
acre.  That  house  we  built  in  Monterey  for  Governor 
Jimena  in  1845,  was  one  of  the  best  jobs  we  ever  did  in 
our  lives,  for  the  old  gentleman  not  only  paid  us  well,  but 
got  us  our  farms  without  any  of  the  trouble  others  had. 
Here  is  the  list  of  our  old  friends  : — 

Pioneer  Companies  'by  the  Overland  route  of  the  Mary' s, 
Ogden  or  Humboldt  River,  in  1841. — In  company  No.  1 — 
Robert  H.  Thomes,  now  of  Tehama  ;  Mr.  Bartlett,  Joseph 
Childs,  Maj.  Rickman,  Talbot  H.  Greene,  Josiah  Belden  of 
San  Jose ;  Charles  Webber  of  Stockton  ;  Henry  Hubert, 
John  Bidwell  of  Chico ;  Charles  Flugge,  Mr.  Barnet,  Mr. 
Brolasky,  Charles  Hopper,  Grove  Cook,  Benjamin  Kelsey, 
Andrew  Kelsey,  Mr.  Kelsey,  all  of  Sonoma  ;  Mr.  Henshaw, 
James  McMahon,  Nelson  McMahon,  Mr.  Patten,  Mr.  Daw- 
son  and  brother,  Mr.  Chandler,  Michael  Nye,  Mr.  Walton, 
Mr.  Swartz,  Mr.  Jones,  James  Littlejohn. 

In  company  No.  2,  of  1841. — William  Workman,  John 
Roland  and  Benito  D.  Wilson  of  Los  Angeles,  Albert  G. 
Toomes  of  Tehama,  William  Knight,  William  Gordon, 
William  Moore,  Isaac  Given,  Frank  Given,  Mr.  Pickman, 
Frederick  Bachelor,  Mr.  Teabo,  Frenchman,  Wade  Hamp 
ton,  Dr.  Meade,  Dr.  Gamble,  Hiram  Taylor,  Mr.  Lindsay, 
Col.  McClure. 

There  were  three  or  four  others  in  these  two  companies 
whose  names  I  have  now  forgotten,  and  many  on  the  list 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  183 

are  still  living  in  the  State.  We  suffered  great  hardships, 
and  got  into  very  tight  pinches  for  food  and  water,  "but  we 
made  up  for  it  when  we  got  among  the  fat  beef  and  venison 
of  California. 

In  the  company  which  came  across  in  1843  were  Maj.  P. 
B.  Heading,  Maj.  S.  J.  Hensley  of  San  Jose,  Maj.  Jacob  K. 
Snyder  of  Sonoma,  Wra.  Blackburn  of  Santa  Cruz,  James 
and  John  Williams,  Isaac  Williams  of  Los  Angeles,  and  two 
others  whose  names  I  have  forgotten.  This  company 
crossed  over  the  Pitt  River  Mountains  and  came  down  the 
Sacramento  valley  to  Suiter's  Fort,  and  their  history  is 
better  known  than  ours. 

When  I  arrived  on  the  coast,  in  1841,  I  found  living  in 
different  parts  of  the  country  the  following  old  American 
and  foreign  settlers  :— 

In  Los  Angeles. — John  Temple,  Abel  Stearnes,  William 
Carpenter,  Richard  Lochlin,  Mr.  Vignes,  William  Wolf- 
skill,  John  J.  Warner,  Mr.  Williams,  and  Stewart  and  Sam, 
two  American  colored  men  ;  and  really  it  was  a  good  thing 
to  see  a  darkey  once  more,  as  in  old  Missouri. 

At  Monterey. — Thomas  O.  Larkin,  David  Spence,  John 
B.  R.  Cooper,  James  Watson,  William  E.  Hartnell,  George 
Kinlock  and  wife,  George  Allen,  James  Stokes,  William 
Watts,  Earnest  Romio  from  Germany,  William  Foxson, 
Mr.  McVicker,  William  E.  Garney,  James  Meadows  and 
James  McKinley. 

At  Santa  Cruz. — Isaac  Graham,  Henry  Nail,  Job  F.  Dye, 
now  of  Idaho;  William  G.  Chard,  Jacob  Majors,  Peter 
Lassen,  John  Sinclair,  Mr.  Dickey,  and  several  others  I 
have  now  forgotten. 

At  Yerba  Buena  or  San  Francisco. — Mr.  Ray  and  wife, 
of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  ;  Hickley  &  Spear,  merchants  ; 
Teal  &  Titcomb,  merchants ;  Sherreback  &  Voiget,  of  the 

hotel ;    William   H.    Davis  and  Daniel  Sill ;   Davis, 

blacksmith; Andrews,    carpenter;    Robert  Ridley, 

John  Coppinger,  Eliab  Grimes  and  Mr.  Johnson. 

At  San  Barbara.—  Daniel  E.  Hill,  Lewis  Burton,  Ziba  F. 
Branch,  Isaac  Sparks,  A.  B.  Thompson,  Thomas  Robins, 
Nicholas  A.  Den  and  Alfred  Robinson. 


184:  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

At  San  Diego. — William  Shocks. 

At  Sonoma  and  the  Bay.—  Jacob  P.  Leese,  Victor  Prud- 
liom  and  George  Yount  of  Napa. 

W.  D.  M.  Howard  and  Joseph  P.  Thompson  of  San 
Francisco,  I  believe,  were  after  my  arrival  one  or  two 
years.  Besides,  these  were  W.  A.  Richardson  of  Saucelito, 
John  Gilroy  and  David  Littlejohn,  who  had  lived  in  the 
country  many  years,  and  our  well  known  old  friend  Capt. 
John  A.  Sutter.— £  F.  Bulletin,  July  27,  1868. 


A    DROVE    OF 


THE  following  piece  of  "  composition  "  may  be  "  "backed  " 
against  any  thing  ever  produced.  It  was  written  half  a  cen 
tury  ago,  by  Sir  Boyle  Roche,  a  member  of  the  Irish  Par 
liament,  in  the  troublous  times  of  '"Ninety-eight,"  when  a 
handful  of  men,  from  the  county  of  Wexford,  struck  terror 
into  the  hearts  of  many  a  gallant  son  of  Mars,  as  well  as 
the  worthy  writer  himself. 

"My  DEAR  SIR: — Having  now  a  little  peace  and  quiet 
ness,  I  sit  down  to  inform  you  of  the  dreadful  bustle  and 
confusion  we  are  all  in  from  these  bloodthirsty  rebels, 
most  of  whom  are— thank  God  ! — killed  and  dispersed. 
We  are  in  a  pretty  mess,  can  get  nothing  to  eat,  nor  any 
wine  to  drink,  except  whisky  ;  and  when  we  sit  down  to 
dinner,  we  are  obliged  to  keep  both  hands  armed.  While 
I  write  this,  I  hold  a  sword  in  each  hand,  and  a  pistol  in 
the  other. 

"  I  concluded  from  the  beginning  that  this  would  be  the 
end  of  it,  and  I  see  I  was  right,  for  it  is  not  half  over  yet. 
At  present  there  are  such  goings-on,  that  every  thing  is  at  a 
stand- still.  I  should  have  answered  your  letter  a  fortnight 
ago  ;  but  I  did  not  receive  it  until  this  morning.  Indeed, 
scarcely  a  mail  arrives  safe  without  being  robbed.  No 
longer  ago  than  yesterday,  the  coach  with  the  mails  from 
Dublin,  was  robbed  near  this  town.  The  bags  had  been 
judiciously  left  behind,  for  fear  of  accident ;  and  by  good 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  185 

luck  there  was  nobody  in  it  but  two  outside  passengers, 
who  had  nothing  for  the  thieves  to  take.  Last  Thursday 
notice  was  given  that  a  gang  of  rebels  was  advancing 
under  the  French  standard,  but  they  had  no  colors,  nor 
any  drums  except  bagpipes. 

"  Immediately  every  man  in  the  place,  including  women 
and  children,  ran  out  to  meet  them.  We  soon  found  our 
force  much  too  little  ;  we  were  too  near  to  think  of  retreat 
ing.  Death  was  in  every  face,  but  to  it  we  went,  and  by 
the  time  half  of  our  little  party  were  killed,  we  began  to  be 
all  alive  again.  Fortunately,  the  rebels  had  no  guns,  ex 
cept  pistols  and  pikes,  and  as  we  had  plenty  of  muskets 
and  ammunition,  we  put  them  all  to  the  sword.  Not  a  soul 
of  them  escaped,  except  some  that  were  drowned  in  an 
adjacent  bog  ;  and  in  a  very  short  time  notliing  was  heard 
but  silence.  Their  uniforms  were  all  different  colors,  but 
mostly  green.  Alter  the  action  we  went  to  rummage  a  sort 
of  camp,  which  they  had  left  behind  them.  All  we  found 
was  a  few  pikes  without  heads,  a  parcel  of  empty  bottles 
full  of  water,  and  a  bundle  of  French  commissions  filled 
with  Irish  names.  Troops  are  now  stationed  all  round  the 
country,  which  exactly  squares  with  my  ideas.  I  have 
only  time  to  add,  that  I  am  in  great  haste. 

"  P.  S. — If  you  do  not  receive  this,  of  course  it  must  have 
miscarried,  therefore  you  must  write  to  let  me  know  !" — 
Harper*  s  Magazine. 


PROFESSOR  LEONARD'S  ESSAY  ON  MATHEMATICS. 


HE  following  able  essay,  by  Professor  C.  T. 
Leonard,  teacher  of  mathematics  in  the  Boys' 
High  School  of  this  city,  was  read  before  the 
State  Teachers'  Institute,  in  this  city,  and  is 
now  published  by  request. 


MATHEMATICS. 

The  subject  I  have  chosen  as  the  basis  of  my  remarks  is 


186  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

mathematics — a  subject  which  comprehends  one  of  the  most 
extensive  and  important  departments  of  human  knowledge. 
By  most  people  it  is  considered  also  as  one  of  the  most  diffi 
cult  departments ;  and  it  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  many, 
with  time  and  talents  equal  to  the  task,  are  deterred  from 
entering  upon  a  study  which  would  amply  repay  the 
expenditure  of  both,  by  this  mistaken  prejudice.  Every 
science,  no  doubt,  has  its  hard  and  knotty  points ;  and  in  no 
intellectual  pursuit  can  distinction  be  attained  without  labor, 
thought,  and  perseverance.  Yet,  if  there  be  one  subject  of 
scientific  inquiry  which,  more  than  any  other,  is  distin 
guished  by  the  simplicity,  certainty,  and  obviousness  of  its 
fundamental  principles — by  the  irresistible  evidence  by 
which  position  after  position  is  established,  and  by  the 
systematic  gradations  by  which  layer  after  layer  of  the  in 
tellectual  structure  is  completed — that  subject  is  pre-emi 
nently  mathematics.  In  other  topics  of  research  there  is 
generally  more  or  less  of  hypothesis  or  conjecture ;  there 
are  obscure  recesses  into  which  the  light  of  truth  and  dem 
onstration  can  not  penetrate,  and  where  fancy  and  imagi 
nation  are  sometimes  permitted  to  guide  our  steps.  But 
there  are  no  perplexities  of  this  kind  in  mathematics,  no 
ingenious  theories  to  mislead,  and  no  conflicting  opinions  to 
bewilder.  Our  progress  here  is  exclusively  under  the  un 
erring  direction  of  Truth  herself ;  and  it  is  her  torch  alone 
that  lights  up  our  path. 

Whether  we  consider  the  subject  of  mathematics  in  refer 
ence  to  its  practical  utility,  in  its  application  to  most  of  the 
arts,  or  as  a  powerful,  and  the  only  adequate  instrument  of 
investigation  in  the  study  of  several  classes  of  physical 
phenomena,  or  as  an  efficient  instrument  of  intellectual  cul 
ture,  or  merely  in  reference  to  the  numerous  and  striking 
abstract  truths  which  it  makes  known,  it  must,  without 
hesitation,  be  admitted  to  be  worthy  of  a  prominent  place 
in  every  course  of  liberal  education.  Mathematical  science 
investigates  the  various  relations  of  measurable  quantity, 
as  space,  time,  force,  motion,  and  velocity.  Our  knowledge 
of  the  objects  of  mathematics  is  obtained  from  experience, 
and  its  axiomatic  principles  are  necessarily  involved  in  our 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  187 

conceptions  of  these  objects.  Although  the  definitions  of 
many  of  these  are  not  necessarily  confined  to  a  single  prop 
erty,  still,  every  definition  must  express  some  characteristic 
property,  and  it  can  not,  therefore,  be  arbitrary.  Theoreti 
cal  geometry  treats  of  the  properties  of  magnitudes,  and 
practical  geometry  of  their  construction. 

There  are  three  kinds  of  magnitudes — of  one,  two,  and 
three  dimensions  respectively — as  lines,  surfaces,  and  solids. 
Our  conceptions  of  magnitude  and  of  space  generally,  are 
arrived  at  by  first  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  a  body  by  expe 
rience,  and  by  a  subsequent  process  of  abstraction.  If  we 
abstract  from  any  body  all  the  properties  of  the  matter  com 
posing  it,  as  its  hardness,  color,  weight,  and  so  on,  and  re 
tain  merely  its  quality  of  extension  in  three  dimensions  of 
length,  breadth,  and  thickness,  we  have  then  a  strict  con 
ception  of  a  geometrical  solid,  which  possesses  none  of  the 
properties  of  matter  except  extension,  and  can  not  therefore 
possess  a  material  existence.  It  is  a  different  object  from 
the  space  which  it  occupies ;  for,  in  any  limited  portion  of 
space,  an  indefinite  number  of  such  solids  may  exist,  the 
one  encompassing  the  other.  Abstract  now  from  any  solid 
its  thickness,  and  we  then  form  the  conception  of  a  surface 
having  only  length  and  breadth.  And  if  from  a  surface  one 
of  its  dimensions  be  abstracted,  as  its  breadth,  we  have  then 
the  idea  of  a  line,  which  possesses  only  length.  The  intersec 
tion  of  two  such  lines  is  a  point,  which  only  marks  position, 
and  has  neither  length,  breadth,  or  thickness.  It  has  been 
objected  to  this  view  of  a  mathematical  point,  that  as  it  has 
no  magnitude,  it  can  have  no  existence.  It  has  certainly  no 
material  existence,  but  its  existence  is  no  less  real  on  that  ac 
count.  Even  a  line  or  a  surface  occupies  no  portion  of  space. 
No  number  of  points,  however  great,  can  fill  any  assignable 
portion  of  space,  however  small.  And  it  has  been  remarked, 
that  even  a  solid  does  not  occupy  exclusively  any  portion 
of  space.  They  would  exist  independently  of  matter,  but 
their  existence  is  no  less  positive,  though  immaterial. 

A  system  of  geometry  proceeds  from  simple,  axiomatic, 
and  incontrovertible  principles,  to  the  demonstration  of 
new  truths ;  and  from  the  combination  of  truths  previously 


188 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


known,  new  truths  are  continually  evolved,  and  thus  a 
system  of  geometrical  science  is  established  by  a  continued 
process  of  logical  deduction.  Some  of  the  elementary  truths 
in  geometry  are  so  obvious  as  to  be  almost  self-evident ; 
but  many  of  them  are  of  a  different  character,  and  are  strik 
ing,  and  even  beautiful,  at  least  when  the  mind  is  habit 
uated  to  contemplate  abstract  truth.  Several  propositions 
are,  in  some  of  their  cases,  axiomatic,  but  in  other  cases  they 
require  to  be  demonstrated.  Without  this  distinction  the 
demonstrations  of  certain  propositions  would  appear  to  be 
unnecessary  ;  and  in  such  instances  they  are  perhaps  more 
useful  in  completely  obviating  objections  than  in  producing 
conviction. 

As  regards  the  utility  of  the  mathematics,  it  must  be  ad 
mitted  that  our  knowledge  has  been  greatly  extended  by  its 
means.  Independently  of  the  innumerable  important  and 
striking  properties  of  magnitudes  and  relations  of  abstract 
quantities  that  it  has  made  known,  and  which  can  be  suffi 
ciently  appreciated  only  by  the  mathematician,  it  has  un 
folded  a  very  extensive  range  of  natural  phenomena.  It 
has  investigated  the  principles  of  theoretical  mechanics ; 
the  laws  of  the  equilibrium  and  motion  of  fluids,  fixed  and 
elastic ;  the  principles  of  optics  or  the  science  of  vision,  of 
electricity  and  of  magnetism  ;  the  theory  of  the  propagation 
of  sound  and  of  light,  and  a  variety  of  other  subjects.  But 
even  the  most  abstruse  branches,  that  appear  to  be  incapa 
ble  of  any  useful  application,  ought  not  to  be  neglected ; 
for  they  may  be  applied  at  some  future  period,  like  the 
ancient  doctrine  of  the  conic  sections,  which  for  twenty  cen 
turies  was  an  object  of  mere  curious  speculation,  till  it  be 
came,  in  the  hands  of  Newton,  an  efficient  means  of  unfold 
ing  the  planetary  motions.  Without  the  aid  of  rules  derived 
from  mathematical  science,  the  navigator,  relying  only  on 
his  compass  as  a  guide,  could  not  with  safety  venture  to  any 
considerable  distance  on  his  element,  intercourse  with  trans 
marine  nations  would  be  impossible ;  and,  consequently, 
our  knowledge  of  the  globe  which  we  inhabit  would  be 
very  limited.  We  should  probably  still  believe  that  its 
surface  is  an  extended  plane,  and  that  it  is  supported  on 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  189 

pillars ;  or,  as  was  the  opinion  of  some  of  the  ancient  phil 
osophers,  that  its  figure  is  cylindrical,  like  a  drum.  With 
out  the  aid  of  this  science,  our  knowledge  of  celestial  objects 
would  be  still  more  imperfect,  and  the  consequence  of  our 
ignorance  still  more  striking.  We  should  still  believe  that 
these  objects  are  equally  distant  from  us,  and,  very  prob 
ably,  that  they  are  distributed  on  the  surface  of  an  exten 
sive  crystalline  sphere,  performing  a  diurnal  rotation  about 
the  earth,  as  the  center  of  the  universe.  We  should  also 
believe  that  some  celestial  phenomena,  as  eclipses  and  com 
ets,  are  signs  of  the  conflict  of  the  elements  of  nature,  or 
that  they  are  portents  of  the  wrath  of  Heaven,  while  con 
templating  to  inflict  on  man  some  dire  calamity,  such  as 
war,  famine,  or  pestilence.  How  different  from  these  unsat 
isfactory  and  incoherent  conjectures  is  that  great  achieve 
ment  of  this  science — the  clear  and  satisfactory  exposition, 
on  the  most  incontrovertible  principles,  of  the  complex, 
though  sublime  and  systematic  mechanism  of  the  heavens, 
by  which  the  distances  and  magnitudes  of  the  sun  and 
planets  have  been  measured,  and  also  their  weights,  and 
even  those  of  their  satellites,  ascertained,  and  by  which  the 
masses  and  distances  of  some  of  the  stars  or  suns  of  other 
systems,  though  inconceivably  remote,  even  in  comparison 
witli  the  great  extent  of  our  own  system,  will  probably  ere 
long  be  determined.  The  practical  utility  of  mathematics 
is  so  well  known  and  so  universally  admitted,  that  on  this 
topic  it  will  not  be  necessary  to  make  many  remarks.  Let 
it  suffice  to  call  to  mind  that  from  its  principles  the  rules 
of  calculation  and  measurement  are  derived.  It  supplies 
the  art  of  measuring  distances,  heights,  surfaces,  and  solids, 
in  artificers'  work,  gauging,  land  and  marine  surveying; 
it  furnishes  the  principles  of  calculation  in  navigation,  nau 
tical  and  practical  astronomy,  of  the  arts  of  the  optician  and 
the  machinist,  and  also  of  the  arts  of  carpentry  and  engi 
neering,  both  civil  and  military.  On  its  deductions  also 
depend  the  arts  of  planning,  perspective,  and  of  the  con 
struction  of  maps  and  charts.  In  short,  wherever  the  con 
struction  of  figures  or  computation  is  in  requisition,  the 
principles  of  mathematics  are  indispensable.  Let  us  take  a 


190  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

brief  view  of  mathematics  as  an  instrument  of  mental  im 
provement,  as  this  is  the  aspect,  perhaps,  in  which  as  edu 
cators  it  merits  our  most  serious  consideration.  It  may  be 
safely  affirmed  that  mathematics,  as  an  instrument  of  intel 
lectual  improvement,  cultivates  chiefly  the  reasoning  faculty. 

It  also  exercises  the  memory  in  a  considerable  degree ; 
and  it  has  a  powerful  tendency  to  form  a  habit  of  undivided 
and  unremitting  attention,  which  is  indispensable  for  suc 
cess  in  any  pursuit.  Every  branch  in  the  theory  of  the  sci 
ence  consists  almost  entirely  of  an  uninterrupted  process  of 
reasoning  ;  and  as  this  process  is  identical  in  every  subject, 
whether  of  necessary  or  contingent  truth,  no  other  study  can 
be  more  conducive  to  the  improvement  of  this  faculty.  A 
step  of  reasoning  or  a  syllogism,  consists  of  a  major  and  a 
minor  proposition,  and  a  conclusion  ;  and  by  a  law  of  our 
mental  constitution,  whether  it  be  called  judgment  or  the 
faculty  of  relative  suggestion,  the  conclusion  follows  as  a 
necessary  consequence  from  these  premises,  in  reasoning  in 
any  subject  as  well  as  in  mathematics ;  so  that  reasoning  is 
exactly  of  the  same  nature  in  this  investigation  both  of 
necessary  and  contingent  truth— with  this  difference,  that 
in  the  former  the  chain  of  sequence  is  of  almost  indefinite 
extent,  while  in  the  latter  it  is  generally  brief.  There  is, 
however,  a  difference  in  the  fundamental  principles.  The 
premises  in  the  former  are  incontrovertible,  at  least  in  pure 
mathematics,  and  generally  in  the  other  branches  of  the 
science. 

Whereas,  in  subjects  of  contingent  matter,  the  premises 
are  usually  only  probable,  and  the  probability  of  the  con 
clusion  must  therefore  be  commensurate  with  that  of  the 
premises.  Synthetic  geometry,  or  the  ordinary  didactic 
method,  affords,  in  the  gradual  exposition  of  geometrical 
truth,  excellent  specimens  of  the  most  clear  and  satisfactory 
reasoning  ;  and  that  branch  of  it  called  geometrical  analysis, 
furnishes,  in  addition,  examples  of  the  resolution  of  truth 
into  its  simple  elementary  principles.  But  analytical  geom 
etry  and  the  other  analytical  branches  of  the  science,  supply 
the  best  examples  of  the  resolution  of  complex  questions— a 
process  which  must  be  effected  before  the  conditions  can  be 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP  BOOK.  191 

comprised  in  symbolical  expressions.  They  also  accustom  the 
mind  to  comprehensive  views,  and  afford  excellent  specimens 
of  subtle  reasoning,  and  exercise  the  mind  in  the  interpreta 
tion  of  the  expression  of  final  results.  In  these  branches,  a 
subordinate  acquirement,  made  at  the  expense  of  much  per 
severance,  is  necessary,  namely  :  the  power  of  managing  skill 
fully  the  concise  but  comprehensive  algorithm  employed  in 
its  researches,  of  which,  however,  that  part  of  the  operations 
that  may  be  considered  to  be  in  some  measure  mechanical, 
will  sometimes  interrupt  the  chain  of  reasoning,  though  in 
the  theory  the  time  thus  spent  by  an  expert  analyst  is  com 
paratively  short.  The  application  of  the  principles  of  the 
science  to  physical  subjects,  affords,  in  addition  to  the  pre 
ceding  kinds  of  intellectual  exercise,  examples  of  premises 
resting  on  probable  evidence,  and  requires  habits  of  close 
reflection  and  accurate  observation,  and,  also',  furnishes  the 
finest  specimens  to  be  found  in  the  whole  range  of  human 
knowledge  of  the  methods  of  philosophical  research,  both 
inductive  and  deductive.  In  straining  the  mind  to  such  re 
searches  it  affords  peculiar  advantages,  for  although  it  is  a 
subject  of  contingent  matter,  the  rigorous  nature  of  investi 
gation  operates  as  a  salutary  check  against  those  fantastic 
speculations  that  result  from  the  unrestrained  excursions  of 
the  imaginative  faculty,  which  in  original  researches  in  other 
subjects,  frequently  produce  extravagant  theories ;  and 
which,  from  the  unsettled  state  of  the  principles,  may,  with 
a  little  ingenuity,  be  made  very  plausible  ;  whereas  any 
such  theory  in  physics  would  be  certain  to  meet  with 
speedy  and  complete  refutation.  A  knowledge  of  the  math 
ematics  and  of  the  methods  employed  in  investigating  the 
necessary  truths  embodied  in  them  is  not  inconsistent  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  nature  of  moral  evidence.  An  exclusive 
attention  to  any  department  of  study  may,  to  some  extent, 
disqualify  the  mind  for  appreciating  truth  in  other  depart 
ments.  If  the  mere  mathematician  can  not  appreciate  minute 
degrees  of  moral  evidence,  neither  can  the  mere  student  of 
probable  truth  appreciate  the  necessity  of  scientific  rigor  in 
mathematical  science.  Both  might  commit  serious  blunders 
in  the  department  to  which  they  are  strangers,  and  the  lat- 


192  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

ter,  if  exclusively  acquainted  with  those  branches  in  which 
the  premises  are  exceedingly  doubtful,  might  from  the  con 
stant  and  bewildering  uncertainty  of  his  own  conclusions, 
be  liable  to  adopt  a  theory  of  universal  skepticism.  It  is  a 
truth  readily  assented  to  even  by  a  mathematician  that  of  two 
contradictory  propositions,  that  for  which  there  is  a  prepon 
derance  of  evidence,  ought  to  be  believed  in  preference  to  the 
other,  although  the  amount  of  evidence  fall  far  short  of 
demonstration.  A  step  of  reasoning  in  mathematics  is  clear 
and  satisfactory  when  once  perceived,  which  is  also  the  case 
in  other  subjects  ;  for  in  them  the  vagueness  or  unsatisfacto- 
riness  accompanying  any  discussion  properly  conducted, 
originates  not  in  the  reasoning,  but  in  the  uncertainty,  and 
sometimes  in  the  multiplicity  of  the  principles  involved.  A 
distinction,  however,  must  be  made  between  difficulty  and 
uncertainty,  for  they  are  not  necessarily  connected,  at  least 
if  difficulty  be  estimated  by  the  degree  of  exercise  required 
of  the  higher  faculties.  The  converse  of  this,  however,  that  is, 
the  union  of  difficulty  with  certainty  of  principles,  is  con 
stantly  experienced  by  the  mathematician ;  for  such  is  the 
complexity  arising  from  the  multiplicity  of  the  principles 
involved  in  some  subjects,  that,  notwithstanding  the  cer 
tainty  of  its  principles,  and  the  perfection  of  its  language, 
and  the  almost  magical  power  of  the  higher  calculus,  they 
have  baffled  the  most  resolute  efforts  of  the  most  able  and 
vigorous  minds ;  and  had  its  language  been  less  perfect, 
there  are  many  subjects  already  thoroughly  investigated, 
the  difficulties  of  which  would  have  been  insurmountable. 
It  is  an  undoubted  fact,  that  many  men  of  reflecting  minds 
have  been  addicted  to  the  study  of  mathematics,  which 
proves  that  there  is  an  adaptation  between  it  and  minds  of 
this  complexion,  or  that  it  is  fitted  to  afford  their  powers 
sufficient  exercise.  Many  celebrated  mathematicians,  too, 
have  been  very  eminent  for  their  acquirements  in  general 
knowledge  ;  in  proof  of  which  it  is  merely  necessary  to  men 
tion  the  names  of  Eratosthenes,  of  almost  universal  attain 
ments  ;  the  learned  Beda,  the  eloquent  Pascal ;  Ramus,  of 
uncommon  acuteness  and  eloquence ;  Descartes,  Leibnitz, 
Condorcet,  D'Alembert,  Dr.  Clarke,  Bishop  Horseley,  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  193 

learned  Barrow,  Play  fair,  and  the  all  but  universal  Young, 
and  the  superior  talents  of  many  mathematicians,  not  so  dis 
tinguished  for  varied  attainments,  is  undeniable,  as  of  New 
ton,  Maclaurin,  La  Grange,  Laplace,  and  many  others. 

There  is  one  American  name,  the  name  of  a  living  writer, 
who  deserves  to  be  classed  with  the  great  names  just  enu 
merated — one  whose  work,  the  ''Philosophy  of  Mathemat 
ics,"  claims  the  admiration  of  every  votary  of  the  exact  sci 
ences,  and  which  is  destined  to  hnd  its  way  into  every  first 
class  teacher's  library  in  the  land.  I  refer  to  Prof.  Bledsoe. 
In  the  science  of  mathematics  there  is  also  great  scope  for 
the  exercise  of  taste  ;  for  since  taste  consists  in  the  judi 
cious  selection  of  the  fittest  and  most  agreeable  and  most 
efficient  means  to  accomplish  an  end,  there  must  be  an  op 
portunity  for  its  exercise  in  the  discussion  of  scientific  as 
well  as  of  literary  subjects  ;  and  the  qualities  of  unity,  clear 
ness,  force  and  elegance,  thus  belong  to  scientific  as  well  as 
to  literary  composition.  Mathematics,  it  is  true,  can  not  af 
ford  information  respecting  the  principles  of  other  subjects, 
no  more  than  natural  philosophy  or  chemistry  ;  but  it  pos 
sesses  this  peculiar  advantage,  that  every  branch  of  science 
tends  rapidly  toward  a  state  of  perfection  in  proportion  as 
it  admits  of  mathematical  investigation.  Since  the  science  of 
theoretical  mathematics  consists  almost  entirely  of  a  contin 
ued  chain  of  reasoning,  it  affords  in  a  given  period  of  study, 
many  more  examples  of  this  process  than  any  other  subject. 

A  mind,  therefore,  disciplined  by  this  invigorating  pur 
suit,  and  also  improved  by  the  study  of  other  branches,  will 
certainly  be  the  best  qualified  for  investigating  either  neces 
sary  or  contingent  truth. 

The  student  of  mathematics,  says  Dr.  Whewell,  is  accus 
tomed  to  a  chain  of  deduction,  where  each  link  hangs  upon 
the  preceding,  and  thus  he  learns  continuity  of  attention 
and  coherency  of  thought.  His  notice  is  steadily  fixed 
upon  those  circumstances  only  in  the  subject  in  which  the 
demonstrativeness  depends,  and  thus  that  mixture  of  various 
grounds  of  conviction,  which  is  so  common  in  other  men's 
minds,  is  rigorously  excluded  from  his.  He  knows  that  all 
depends  upon  his  first  principles,  and  flows  inevitably  from 

13 


194  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

them,  that  however  far  he  may  have  traveled,  he  can  at  will 
go  over  any  portion  of  his  path  and  satisfy  himself  that  it  is 
legitimate ;  and  thus  he  acquires  a  just  persuasion  of  the 
inmortance  of  principles  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the  other 
of  the  necessary  and  constant  identity  of  the  conclusions  le 
gitimately  deduced  from  them.  Mr.  President,  and  ye  other 
co-workers  in  the  cause  of  education,  whether  the  scene  of 
your  labors  be  in  a  splendid  structure  erected  by  the  liber 
ality  of  a  great  metropolis,  like  that  in  which  we  are  assem 
bled,  or  in  a  far  less  imposing  edifice — in  some  secluded  val 
ley,  or  on  the  slope  of  some  lofty  hill- side,  whose  crust  but 
half  conceals  the  mineral  treasures  beneath — wherever  loca 
ted  you  will  be  advocating  the  cause  of  educational  prog 
ress,  and  true  mental  acumen,  and  great  intellectual 
strength,  while  advocating  the  study  of  mathematics  as  ex 
tensively  as  may  be  into  the  people' s  colleges — the  free  pub 
lic  schools  of  this  city  and  of  this  State.  I  have  treated  very 
imperfectly  the  general  question,  but  I  have  no  doubt  that 
in  this  institute  will  be  found  many  able  teachers  ready  to 
express  their  views  and  discuss  this  subject  in  detail.  Some 
are  here,  I  know,  who  have  tested,  with  very  flattering  re 
sults,  the  introduction  of  the  study  of  elementary  geometry 
in  a  class  of  very  young  pupils,  and  I  can  bear  testimony  to 
the  progress  made  and  the  thorough  apprehension  of  princi 
ples.  Do  not,  therefore,  fellow  teachers,  say  there  is  no 
time  or  room  in  the  course  ;  if  you  desire  to  educate  thor 
oughly,  you  must  fix  the  attention  of  your  pupils,  and  de 
velop  early  in  them  that  reasoning  power  they  need  to  use 
so  extensively  during  the  whole  period  of  their  education. 
You  can  do  this  best  by  a  timely  and  judicious  use  of  math 
ematics.— &  F.  Times,  June  20,  1868. 


LITERARY    CURIOSITIES. 


A  LADY  of  San  Francisco  is  said  to  have  occupied  several 
years  in  hunting  up  and  fitting  together  the  following  thirty- 
eight  lines  from  thirty-eight  English  poets.  The  names 
of  the  authors  are  given  below  each  line  :— 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  195 


LIFE. 

Why  all  this  toil  for  triumph  of  an  hour  ? 

Young. 
Life's  a  short  summer,  man  a  flower ; 

Dr.  Johnson. 
By  turn  we  catch  the  vital  breath  and  die — 

Pope. 
The  cradle  and  the  tomb,  alas !  so  nigh. 

Prior. 
To  be  is  far  better  than  not  to  be, 

Sewell. 
Though  all  man's  life  may  seem  a  tragedy ; 

Spencer. 
But  light  cares  speak  when  mighty  griefs  are  dumb. 

Daniel. 
The  bottom  is  but  shallow  whence  they  come ; 

Raleigh. 
Your  fate  is  but  the  common  fate  of  all ; 

Longfellow. 
Unmingled  joys,  here,  no  man  befall. 

Southwell. 
Nature  to  each  allots  his  proper  sphere, 

Congreve. 
Fortune  makes  folly  her  peculiar  care  ; 

Churchill. 
Custom  does  not  often  reason  overrule. 

Rochester. 
And  throw  a  cruel  sunshine  on  a  fool. 

Armstrong. 
Live  well,  how  long  or  short,  permit  to  heaven ; 

Milton. 
They  who  forgive  most  shall  be  most  forgiven. 

Bailey. 
Sin  may  be  clasped  so  close  we  can  not  see  its  face ; 

'";  ;   Trench. 
Vile  intercourse  where  virtue  has  not  place ; 

Somerville. 
Then  keep  each  passion  down,  however  dear, 

Thorn} 

0* 

'Tf 


7ERSIT7] 


196  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Thou  pendulum,  betwixt  a  smile  and  tear ; 

Byron. 
Her  sensual  snares  let  faithless  Pleasures  lay, 

Smollet. 
With  craft  and  skill  to  ruin  and  betray, 

Crabbe. 
Soar  not  too  high  to  fall,  but  stoop  to  rise, 

Massitiger. 
We  masters  grow  of  all  that  we  despise. 

Cowley. 
O,  then,  renounce  that  impious  self-esteem, 

Beattie. 
Riches  have  wings  and  grandeur  is  a  dream. 

Cooper. 
Think  not  ambition  wise  because  'tis  brave, 

Davenant. 
The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave. 

Gray. 
What  is  ambition  ?  'tis  a  glorious  cheat, 

Willis. 
Only  destructive  to  the  brave  and  great. 

Addison. 
What's  all  the  gaudy  glitter  of  a  crown  ? 

Dryden. 

The  way  to  bliss  lies  not  on  beds  of  down. 

Quarles. 
How  long  we  live,  not  years,  but  actions  tell ; 

Watkins. 
That  man  lives  twice  who  lives  the  first  life  well. 

Herrick. 
Make  then,  while  yet  ye  may,  your  God  your  friend, 

Mason. 
Whom  Christians  worship,  yet  not  comprehend, 

Hill 
The  trust  that's  given  guard,  and  to  yourself  be  just; 

Dana. 
For,  live  we  how  we  can,  yet  die  we  must. 

Shakespeare. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  197 

A    QUEER    OLD    RHYME. 

HERE  is  a  queer  old  rhyme  which  is  quite  contrary  in 
sense,  as  you  read  it  across,  running  the  lines  together  :— 
I  always  did  intend,  To  take  to  me  a  wife, 

Single  my  life  to  spend,       Would  grieve  my  very  life, 
It  much  delighteth  me,        To  think  upon  a  bride, 
To  live  from  woman  free,    I  can't  be  satisfied, 
The  female  to  my  mind,      The  joy  I  can't  express 
I  ne'er  expect  to  find,          So  great  in  singleness, 
A  bachelor  to  live,  I  never  could  agree, 

My  mind  I  freely  give,       A  married  man  to  be. 

MATRIMONY. 

MOST  people  believe  the  following  lines  should  be  read 
as  they  are  printed  ;  but  a  crusty  old  bachelor  reads  the 
first  and  third,  and  second  and  fourth,  lines  together  :— 

The  man  must  lead  a  happy  life 
Who  is  directed  by  his  wife ; 
Who's  free  from  matrimonial  chains, 
Is  sure  to  suffer  for  his  pains. 

Adam  could  find  no  real  peace 

Until  he  saw  a  woman's  face ; 

When  Eve  was  given  for  a  mate, 

Adam  was  in  a  happy  state.  » 

In  all  the  female  heart  appear 
Truth,  darling  of  a  heart  sincere, 
Hypocrisy,  deceit  and  pride, 
Ne'er  known  in  woman  to  reside. 

What  tongue  is  able  to  unfold 
The  worth  in  woman  we  behold  ? 
The  falsehoods  that  in  woman  dwell 
Is  almost  imperceptible. 

Hanged  be  the  foolish  man,  I  say, 
Who  will  not  yield  to  woman's  sway ! 
Who  changes  from  his  singleness, 
Is  sure  of  perfect  blessedness. 


198  •  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


THE   LORD'S    PRAYER. 

[THE  following  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  composi 
tions  ever  published.  It  evinces  an  ingenuity  of  arrange 
ment  such  as  we  have  never  seen  before.  Explanation : 
The  initial  capitals  spell,  "  My  boast  is  in  the  glorious  Cross 
of  Christ."  The  words  in  italics,  when  read  from  top  to 
bottom  and  from  bottom  to  top,  form  the  Lord's  Prayer 
complete :] — 

Make  known  the  gospel  truths,  our  Father,  King, 

Yield  us  Thy  grace,  dear  Father,  from  above ; 
Bless  us  with  hearts  which  feelingly  can  sing, 

"  Our  life  Thou  art  for  ever,  God  of  Love  !" 
Assuage  our  grief  in  love,  for  Christ  we  pray, 

Since  the  bright  Prince  of  Heaven  and  glory  died, 
Took  all  our  sins  and  hallowed  the  display, 

Infant  be  ing,  first  a  man,  and  then  was  crucified. 
Stupendous  God  !    TJiy  grace  and  power  make  known, 

In  Jesus'  name  let  all  the  world  rejoice  ; 
New  labors  in  Thy  heavenly  kingdom  own 

That  blessed  kingdom  for  thy  saints  the  choice. 
How  vile  to  come  to  Thee  is  all  our  cry, 

Enemies  to  Thy  self  and  all  that  Thine, 
Graceless  our  will,  we  live  for  vanity, 

Loathing  thy  very  be  ing  evil  in  design. 
O  God  !  Thy  will  be  done  from  earth  to  Heaven, 

Reclining  on  the  gospel  let  us  live, 
In  earth  from  sin  deliver  ed  and  forgiven. 

Oh  !  as  Thyself  but  teach  us  to  forgive  ! 
Unless  it's  power  temptation  doth  destroy, 

Sure  is  our  fall  into  the  depths  of  AVOC — 
Carnal  in  mind,  we've  not  a  glimpse  of  joy 

Raised  against  Heaven  ;  in  us  no  hope  can  flow. 
Oh !  give  us  grace  and  lead  us  on  Thy  way  ; 

Shine  on  its  with  Thy  love,  and  give  us  peace ; 
Self  and  this  sin  that  rise  against  us  slay  ; 

Oh  !  grant  each  day  our   trespass  es  may  cease. 
Forgive  our  evil  deeds  that  oft  we  do, 

Convince  us  daily  of  them  to  our  shame  ; 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  199 

Help  us  with  heavenly  bread,  forgive  us,  too, 
Recurrent  lusts,  and  we'll  adore  Thy  name ; 

In  Thy  forgive  ness  we  as  saints  can  die, 
Since  for  us  and  our  tres%)asses  so  high, 

Thy  Son,  our  Saviour,  bled  on  Calvary. 


A    VERBAL    WHIMSEY. 

AN  English  poet  gives  us  the  following  poem,  containing 
only  one  vowel : — 

"  No  monk  too  good  to  rob,  or  cog,  or  plot, 
No  fool  so  gross  to  bolt  Scotch  collop  hot, 
From  Donjon  tops  no  Oronock  rolls, 
Logwood,  not  Lotos,  floods  Oporto's  bowl. 
Troops  of  old  tosspots  oft  to  sot  consort, 
Box  tops  school-boys,  do  flog  for  sport. 
No  cool  monsoon  blows  oft  on  Oxford  dons, 
Orthodox  jog-trot,  book-worm  Solomon  ! 
Bold  Ostrogoths  of  ghosts  no  horror  show, 
On  London  shop  front  no  hop-blossoms  grow, 
To  crooks  of  gold  no  dodo  looks  for  food, 
On  soft  cloth  foot-stool  no  fox  doth  brood, 
Long  storm-tost  sloops  forlorn  do  work  to  port, 
Rooks  do  not  roost  on  spoons,  nor  woodcocks  snort, 
Nor  dog  on  snow-drops  or  on  coltsfoot  roll, 
Nor  common  frogs  concoct  long  protocols." 


CURIOSITIES    OF   THE    ENGLISH    LANGUAGE. 

'\ 

&HE  English  language,  perhaps  more  than  any 
other,  is  capable  of  queer  and  ingenious  uses, 
misuses,  transformations  and  combinations. 
The  student  of  the  curiosities  of  literature  is 
astonished  at  its  wonderful  susceptibility  to 
odd  pranks  in  the  way  of  orthography,  syntax, 
prosody,  pronunciation,  rhyme  and  translation.  Some 
curious  effects  are  sometimes  produced  by  an  ingenious 


200  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

arrangement  of  pronunciation.  A  device  lias  often  been 
used  in  political  and  other  partisan  songs  called  "echo 
verses,"  in  which  the  sounds  of  the  last  words  of  a  line 
are  repeated  after  the  manner  of  an  echo,  the  whole  being 
so  contrived  as  to  express  some  significant  meaning.  This, 
though  a  short  specimen,  is  a  good  illustration  : — 

"  What  are  they  who  pay  three  guineas 
To  hear  a  tune  of  Paganini's  ? 

(Echo)  Pack  o'  ninnies  !" 

PLAY    UPOX    WOKDS. 

% 

OF  course  the  whole  innumerable  host  of  puns  bad  and 
good  which  are  floating  about  in  books  and  newspapers,  as 
well  as  in  social  circles,  are  all  predicated  upon  similarities 
in  pronunciation.  A  pun  that  has  in  it  a  sharp  and  witty 
meaning  is  a  good  thing  ;  but  the  immense  deal  of  trash 
and  of  far-fetched  constructions  that  are  put  in  circulation 
by  laborers  after  the  pun,  which  is  worth  nothing  if  it  is 
not  spontaneous,  has  given  this  kind  of  literature  a  bad 
reputation,  so  that  few  good  authors  will  use  it.  The  simil 
arity  of  sound  has  given  rise  to  such  senseless  productions 
as  the  following,  which  may  be  queer,  but  are  certainly  not 
witty  : — 

"  Mr.  Popp,  of  Poppville,  in  Popp  County,  fancying  him 
self  to  be  very  popular  with  his  lady  love,  i  popped  the 
question '  to  her  under  the  poplar  tree,  when  she  referred 
him  to  her  poppy,  who,  when  asked  for  his  consent,  labor 
ing  under  the  influence  of  ginger-pop,  popped  him  out  of 
the  door  to  the  tune  of  '  Pop  goes  the  weasel.' ' 

Or  this:  "You  have  no  business  to  have  any  business 
with  other  people's  business  ;  but  mind  your  own  business, 
and  that  is  business  enough." 

The  following  is  given  as  a  statement  of  fact  which  may 
possibly  add  something  to  its  value  : — 

"  There  is  a  young  man  in  the  army  who  was  born  July 
4th,  at  4  o'clock  p.  M.,  at  No.  44  at  a  street  in  this  city, 
1814,  a  fourth  child,  has  four  names,  enlisted  in  Company 
D,  of  the  Fourth  Battalion,  Forty-fourth  Regiment,  fourth 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  201 

company,  and  on  the  4th,  day  of  September  was  appointed 
Fourth  Corporal,  and  is  now  going  forth  to  defend  his 
country." 

Here  is  a  traveler' s  report  of  a  conversation  with  a  back 
woodsman  : — 

"  Whose  house  ?"  "Mogs."  "  Of  what  built?"  "  Logs." 
"Any  neighbors?"  "Frogs."  "What  is  the  soil?" 
"Bogs."  "The  climate?"  "Fogs."  "Your  diet?" 
"  Hogs."  "  How  do  you  catch  them  ?"  "  Dogs." 

An  original  instance  is  given  of  answering  two  questions 
at  one  time  : — 

"  Here,  Biddy,  my  darlint,  what's  the  time  o'  night,  and 
where' s  the  pertaty  pudding  ?' ' 

"It  is  eight,  sir." 

Which  may  as  well  be  followed  by  an  account  of  a  curi 
ous  misunderstanding  : — 

"  I  come  for  the  saw,  sir,"  said  an  urchin. 

"What  saucer?" 

"  Why,  the  saw,  sir,  that  you  borrowed." 

"  I  borrowed  no  saucer." 

"  Sure  you  did,  sir — borrowed  our  saw,  sir." 

"  Be  off,  never  saw  your  saucer." 

"  But  you  did,  sir — there's  the  saw,  sir,  now,  sir." 

"  Oh  !  you  want  the  saw  f" 

Here  is  a  Quaker  toast  that  has  a  thought  in  it  :— 

"  This  is  me  and  mine  to  thee  and  thine.  I  wish  when 
thou  and  thine  come  to  see  me  and  mine,  that  we  and  mine 
will  treat  thee  and  thine  as  kindly  as  thee  and  thine  have 
treated  me  and  mine." 

This  is  a  new  version  of  the  old  compliment,  which  runs 
something  after  this  wise  : — 

"I  wish  thee  and  thy  folks  loved  me  and  my  folks  as 
well  as  me  and  my  folks  love  thee  and  thy  folks.  For 
sure,  there  never  was  folks  since  folks  was  folks  that  ever 
loved  folks  half  so  well  as  me  and  my  folks  love  thee  and 
thy  folks." 


202  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


WOKDS    WITHOUT    KHYMES. 

POETS  have  been  often  greatly  puzzled  to  find  rhymes 
for  particular  words.  It  is  said  that  there  is  no  word  in  the 
English  language  which  fairly  rhymes  with  "step"  or 
"  month."  Byron  says  that  it  is  impossible  to  find  a  rhyme 
for  the  word  "  silver."  Every  little  while  some  inquisitive 
genius  proclaims  that  some  particular  word  is  without  a 
rhyme,  and  challenges  the  world  to  disprove  his  assertion. 
Forthwith  many  people  cudgel  their  brains,  and  sometimes 
do  produce  the  desired  word.  Some  years  ago  the  Knicker 
bocker  offered  a  brass  quarter  dollar  to  the  person  who 
could  find  a  rhyme  to  the  word  "  window."  The  prize  was 
earned  by  the  following  effort,  which  furnishes  the  rhyme 
and  has  some  fun  in  it  as  well : — 

A  cruel  man  a  beetle  caught, 
And  to  the  wall  him  pinned,  oh ! 
Then  said  the  beetle  to  the  crowd, 
Though  I'm  stuck  up,  I  am  not  proud," 
And  his  soul  went  out  of  the  window. 

Somebody  has  challenged  a  rhyme  for  "  carpet,"  and  the 
following  was  the  best  production  elicited,  styled  "Lines 
to  a  Pretty  Barmaid  " : — 

Sweet  maid  of  the  inn, 

'Tis  surely  no  sin 
To  toast  such  a  beautiful  bar  pet. 

Believe  me,  my  dear, 

Your  feet  would  appear 
At  home  on  a  nobleman's  carpet. 

A  line  ending  with  "harp  it"  also  came  near  to  the 
mark.  A  rhyme  was  found  from  Timbuctoo,  as  follows  : — 

I  went  a  hunting  on  the  plains, 

The  plains  of  Timbuctoo  ; 
I  shot  one  buck  for  all  my  pains, 

And  he  was  a  slim  buck  too. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  203 

And  also  for  ' '  garden ' ' : 

Though  Afric's  lion  be  not  here 

In  showman's  stoutly  barr'd  den, 
An  "  Irish  Lion  "  you  may  see 

At  large  in  Winter  Garden. 

Hood,  in  his  humorous  poems,  either  originated  or 
adopted  the  idea  of  dividing  words,  at  the  end  of  a  line  for 
the  sake  of  rhyme.  The  following  which  is  floating  about, 
is  a  specimen  of  that  kind  of  composition : — 

A  year  old  to-day  is  little  Molly — 
Romping,  noisy,  fat  and  jolly  ; 
Too  young  to  walk,  and  like  a  polly- 
wog  excited,  she  goes  froli 
cking  about  the  floor,  and  golly  ! 
What  a  laugh  ! 

Leonine  verses  are  those  in  which  the  terminations  rhyme 
with  the  central  words.  An  inscription  in  the  Chapter 
House  of  York  Cathedral  is  a  beautiful  specimen  of  this : — 

"  Ut  Rosa  flos  florum,  sic  est  domus  ista  domorum." 

FOREIGNERS   AND   THE    ENGLISH    LANGUAGE. 

THE  English  language  must  appear  fearfully  and  wonder 
fully  made  to  a  foreigner.  One  of  them,  looking  at  a  pic 
ture  of  a  number  of  vessels,  said,  "  See,  what  a  flock  of 
ships." 

He  was  told  that  a  flock  of  ships  was  called  a  fleet,  but 
that  a  fleet  of  sheep  was  called  a  flock.  And  it  was  added 
for  his  guidance  in  mastering  the  intricacies  of  our  lan 
guage,  that  a  flock  of  girls  is  called  a  bevy,  but  a  bevy  of 
wolves  is  called  a  pack,  and  a  pact  of  thieves  is  called  a 
gang,  and  a  gang  of  angels  is  called  a  host,  and  a  host  of 
porpoises  is  called  a  shoal,  and  a  shoal  of  buffaloes  is 
called  a  herd,  and  a  herd  of  children  is  called  a  covey, 
and  a  covey  of  beauties  is  called  a  galaxy,  and  a  galaxy 
of  ruffians  is  called  a  horde,  and  a  horde  of  rubbish  is 


204  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

called  a  heap,  and  a  heap  of  oxen  is  called  a  drove,  and 
a  drove  of  blackguards  is  called  a  mob,  and  a  mob  of 
whales  is  called  a  school,  and  a  school  of  worshipers  is 
called  a  congregation,  and  a  congregation  of  engineers  is 
called  a  corps,  and  a  corps  of  robbers  is  called  a  band,  and 
a  band  of  locusts  is  called  a  swarm,  and  a  swarm  of  people 
is  called  a  crowd,  and  a  crowd  of  gentlefolks  is  called  the 
elite,  and  the  elite  of  the  city' s  thieves  and  rascals  are  called 
the  roughs,  and  the  miscellaneous  crowd  of  city  folks  is 
called  the  community  or  the  public,  according  as  they  are 
spoken  of  by  the  religious  community  or  secular  public. 

Now,  again,  the  Hudson  River  is  fast  wrhen  the  ice  is  im 
movable,  and  then  the  ice  disappeared  very  fast,  for  it  was 
loose.  A  clock  is  called  fast  when  it  is  quicker  than  time  ; 
but  a  man  is  told  to  stand  fast  when  lie  is  desired  to  remain 
stationary.  People  fast  when  they  have  nothing  to  eat,  and 
eat  fast,  consequently,  when  opportunity  offers. 

A  story  is  told  of  a  German  who  attempted  to  court  in 
English  with  the  aid  of  a  dictionary.  Having  obtained  an 
interview  with  an  English  lady  who,  having  recently  lost 
her  husband,  must  be  open  to  new  offers,  he  opened  the 
business  thus  :  — 

"  High-born  madam,  since  your  husband  has  kicked  the 
bucket — " 

"  Sir  !"  interrupted  the  lady,  astonished  and  displeased. 

"  Oh,  pardon— nine,  ten  thousand  pardon  !  Now  I  make 
new  beginning — quite  order  beginning.  Madam,  since 
your  husband  have  cut  his  stick — " 

It  may  be  supposed  that  this  did  not  mend  matters  ;  and 
reading  as  much  in  the  lady's  countenance,  he  said,  perspir 
ing  with  shame  at  having  a  second  time  missed  fire  :— 

"Madam,  since  your  husband  has  gone  to  kingdom 
come— 

This  he  said  beseechingly,  but  the  lady  was  past  propi 
tiation  by  this  time,  and  rapidly  moved  toward  the  door. 
Taking  a  last  hurried  look  at  his  dictionary,  the  German 
flew  after  the  lady,  crying  out  in  a  voice  of  despair : — 

"  Madam,  since  your  husband,  your  most  respected  hus 
band,  have  hopped  de  twig — " 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  205 

This  was  his  sheet-anchor,  and  as  this  also  "  came  home," 
of  course  the  poor  man  was  totally  wrecked.  It  turned  out 
that  the  dictionary  he  had  used  had  put  down  the  verb 
sterben  (to  die)  with  the  following  worshipful  series  of 
equivalents:  1.  To  kick  the  bucket,  2.  To  cut  one's 
stick.  3.  To  go  to  kingdom  come.  4.  To  hop  the  twig  :  to 
hop  off  the  perch  into  Davy' s  locker. 

A  French  gentleman  who  was  caressing  a  dog  one  day, 
remarked  :  "I  love  de  dogs,  de  cats,  de  sheep,  de  pigs ;  in 
short,  any  thing  vat  is  beastly." 

Of  course  we  make  as  funny  mistakes  in  other  languages 
if  we  only  knew  it. 

"  Miss  Blank,  it  is  known,  is  accustomed  to  say 
Many  very  queer  things  in  a  very  queer  way  ; 
But  of  all  her  mistakes,  the  absurdest  and  oddest, 
Occurred  when  she  called  French  modiste  modest." 

THE    HUMOROUS    VEIN. 

AN  individual  is  told  of  as  doing  business  in  one  of 
the  markets,  who  is  down  on  customers  who  don't 
speak  properly.  "  What's  eggs  this  morning  ?"  says  a  cus 
tomer.  "  Eggs,  of  course,"  says  the  dealer.  "  I  mean,  how 
do  they  go?"  "Go  where?"  "  Sho— !"  says  the  cus 
tomer,  getting  in  a  fury,  "what  for  eggs?"  "Money, 
money,  sir!  or  good  indorsed  credit!"  says  the  dealer. 
"Don't  you  understand  the  English  language,  sir?"  says 
the  customer.  "  Not  as  you  mix  it  and  mingle  it,  I  don't," 
responded  the  egg  merchant,  "  What— is— the— price— per 
—dozen— for— your— eggs  ?"  "Ah,  now  you  talk,"  says 
the  dealer.  "Sixteen  cents  per  dozen  is  the  price,  sir!" 
They  traded.  But  it  appears  that  another  customer,  who, 
on  asking,  "What's  eggs  this  morning?"  was  answered, 
"  Eggs,  of  course,"  responded  :  "  Well,  I  am  glad  of  that, 
for  the  last  I  got  of  you  were  half  chickens." 

A  Dutchman  had  two  pigs— a  large  one  and  a  small  one. 
The  smallest  being  the  oldest,  he  was  trying  to  explain  to  a 
customer,  and  did  it  in  this  wise:  "The  little  pig  is  the 
piggest."  Upon  which  his  vrow,  assuming  to  correct  him, 


Of  THS 


206  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

said  :  "  You  will  excuse  him,  lie  no  speak  as  good  English 
as  me — he  no  means  the  little  pig  is  the  piggest,  but  te  young 
little  pig  is  te  oldest." 

In  a  Dutch  translation  of  Addison's  Cato,  the  words, 
' '  Plato,  thou  reasonest  well, "  are  rendered  :  ' '  Just  so,  you 
are  very  right,  Mynheer  Plato." 

"  The  dear  little  things,"  said  an  old  nurse  of  her  mis 
tress's  twin  children  ;  "one  looks  so  much  like  both,  you 
can't  tell  t'other  from  which  !" 

The  contradictions  of  pronunciation  in  the  termination 
"  ough,"  are  amusingly  displayed  in  the  following  lines  : — 

"  Wife,  make  me  some  dumplings  of  dough  ; 

They're  better  than  meal  for  my  cough ; 
Pray  let  them  be  boiled  till  hot  through, 

But  not  till  they're  heavy  or  tough. 
Now  I  must  be  off  to  the  plough, 

And  the  boys,  when  they've  had  enough, 
Must  keep  the  flies  off  with  a  bough, 

While  the  old  mare  drinks  at  the  trough!" 

A  report  of  a  prize  fight  must  be  a  very  interesting  thing 
for  a  foreigner  to  translate.  A  very  simple  report  of  a  fight 
in  which  some  "game"  individual  mounted  the  ladder  of 
fame  from  the  area  of  the  prize  ring  by  a  certain  number  of 
"rounds,"  tells  us  that  the  combatants  struck  each  other 
with  the  mawleys  and  bunches  of  fives  upon  the  head,  the 
nut,  the  cone,  the  conk,  the  canister,  the  noddle,  the  mug, 
the  knowledge-box  ;  the  nose,  the  sneezer,  the  snorer,  the 
snuffer,  the  snuff-tray,  the  nozzle,  the  mazzard  ;  the  eyes, 
the  ogles,  the  optics,  the  peepers ;  the  mouth,  the  kisser, 
the  whistler,  the  orator-trap  ;  drawing  the  blood,  the  claret, 
the  ruby,  the  crimson,  the  home-brewed,  the  gravy  ;  and  in 
several  instances  knocked  the  unfortunate  knocker  off  his 
pins,  his  pegs,  his  stumps,  and  his  foundation,  to  say  noth 
ing  of  boring,  fibbing,  and  sending  him  to  grass.  Who 
wants  the  belt  ? 

So  it  must  be  interesting  to  a  foreigner  who  relies  on  his 
dictionary,  to  hear  the  talk  of  "dead  beats,"  "small  pota 
toes — few  in  a  hill,"  bully  boys,"  "big  things,"  and  things 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  207 

that  one  "can't  see."     The  initials  "  O.  K.,"  which  mean 
"Oil  Korrect,"  are  at  least  twenty  years  old. 

INGENIOUS    USE    OF    LANGUAGES. 

LET  us  notice  some  of  the  ingenious  things  that  can  be 
done  with  the  language.  The  repetition  of  the  same  class 
of  rhymes  is  quite  common,  but  the  following  epistles  may 
be  readable : — 

MADAM  : 

Most  worthy  of  estimation,  after  long  consideration, 

And  much  meditation,  of  the  great  reputation, 

You  possess  my  admiration,  and  if  such  oblavation 

Is  worthy  of  observation,  and  can  obtain  consideration, 

It  will  be  aggrandization  beyond  all  calculation, 

To  the  joy  and  exultation 

Of  yours,          SANS  DISSIMULATION. 
SIR: 

I  have  perused  your  oration  with  much  deliberation, 

And  little  consternation,  at  the  great  infatuation 

Of  your  weak  imagination  to  show  such  veneration, 

On  so  slight  a  foundation ;    but  after  examination 

And  serious  contemplation,  I  suppose  your  admiration 

Was  the  fruit  of  recreation,  or  had  sprung  from  ostentation 

To  display  your  education  by  odd  enumeration, 

Or  rather  multiplication,  of  words  of  the  same  termination, 

Though  of  great  variation  in  each  respective  signification. 

Not  without  disputation,  your  laborious  application 

To  so  tedious  an  occupation,  deserves  commendation, 

And  thinking  imitation  a  sufficient  gratification, 

I  am,  without  hesitation, 

Yours,  MARY  MODERATION. 

Palindromes,  or  lines  that  read  the  same  backward  and 
forward,  are  frequent  in  Latin  or  Greek,  but  it  is  quite  dif 
ficult  to  construct  them  in  English.  The  lawyer' s  motto, 
"  Si  nummi  irtvrnunis"  is  a  good  specimen  of  a  Latin  one. 
The  best  in  English  is  Adam's  first  observation  to  Eve, 
"Madam,  I'm  Adam."  The  one  by  Taylor,  the  water  poet, 
''  Lewd  I  did  live  &  evil  did  I  dwel,"  lacks  completeness 
in  two  points. 


208  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Here  is  a  sentence  of  thirty-two  words,  which  some  inge 
nious  child  has  constructed  with  just  the  letters  found  in 
the  word  maiden  :  "  Ida,  a  maiden,  a  mean  man  named  Ned 
Dean,  and  Media,  a  mad  dame,  made  me  mend  a  die  and  a 
dime,  and  mind  a  mine  in  a  dim  den  in  Maine." 

The  following  queer  sentence  originated,  like  many  other 
odd  things,  in  one  of  our  monthly  magazines  : — 

"  Sator  arepo  tenet  opera  rotas." 

1.  This  spells  "backward  and  forward  all  the  same. 

2.  Then,  taking  all  the  first  letters  of  each  word,  spells 
the  first  word. 

3.  Then  taking  all  the  second  letters  of  each  word,  spells 
the  second  word. 

4.  Then  all  the  third,  and  so  on  through  the  fourth  and 
fifth. 

5.  Then,  commencing  with  the  last  letter  of  each  word, 
spells  the  last. 

6.  Then  the  next  to  the  last  of  each  word,  and  so  on 
through. 

Here  is  the  way  a  grammarian  conjugated  the  increasing 
heat : — 

"Hot,  hotter,  hottest,  hottentot,  hottentoter,  hottentotest, 
hottentotissimo,  hottentotissimus,  hot  as  an  oven,  hot  as  two 
ovens,  hot  as  four  ovens,  hot  as  seven  ovens  hot." 

A  gentleman  who  could  not  pronounce  the  letter  R,  was 
asked  to  read  the  following : — 

"  Robert  gave  Richard  a  rap  in  the  ribs, 
For  roasting  the  rabbit  so  rare." 

He  evaded  the  difficulty  in  the  folio  wing  ingenious  manner : 

"  Bobby  gave  Dickey  a  thump  in  the  side, 
For  cooking  the  bunny  so  little." 

We  will  close  by  relating  a  marvel  in  the  way  of  logic 
done  by  Granger.  He  was  a  remarkably  ugly  man,  but 
contended  that  he  was  the  handsomest  thing  in  the  world. 
He  proved  it  thus  :  "  The  handsomest  part  of  the  world," 
said  he,  "is  Europe  ;  of  Europe,  France  ;  of  France,  Paris  ; 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  9QD 

of  Paris,  the  university ;  of  the  university,  the  college  of 

;  in  the  college  of ,  the  handsomest  room  is  mine  ; 

in  my  room,  I  am  the  handsomest  thing ;  ergo,  I  am  the 
handsomest  thing  in  the  world." — N.  Y.  Evening  Post. 


QUARTZ    MINING   TWO    THOUSAND    YEARS   AGO. 


E  have  been  favored  by  a  gentleman,  somewhat 
given  to  antiquarian  researches,  with  a  descrip 
tion  of  mining  for  gold,  as  it  was  carried  on 
about  a  century  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  arid 
for  a  considerable  time  before,  which,  in  all  its 
essential  features,  precisely  resembles  the  mode 
of  working  quartz  mines  now  practiced  in  California.  It  will 
be  observed  that  the  principle  upon  which  quartz  is  taken 
out  of  the  earth,  calcined,  crushed  with  stamps  and  rollers, 
and  also  the  manner  of  separating  the  gold  from  the  pulverized 
rock,  have  undergone  no  change,  the  additional  elements 
introduced  being  those  of  steam,  of  quicksilver,  gunpowder, 
and  the  improvements  in  the  manufacture  of  tools,  which, 
have  accompanied  and  form  a  part  of  modern  civilization. 
The  description  is  full  of  interest  to  California.  It  is  ex 
tracted  from  the  third  book  of  the  "Corpus  Historicmn " 
of  Diodorus  Siculus,  a  Sicilian  author,  who  flourished  about 
threescore  years  before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era. 

"  In  the  confines  of  Egypt,  and  the  neighboring  countries 
of  Arabia  and  Ethiopia,  there  is  a  place  full  of  rich  gold 
mines,  out  of  which,  with  much  cost,  and  pains  of  many 
laborers,  gold  is  dug.  The  soil  here  naturally  is  black, 
but  in  the  body  of  the  earth  run  many  white  veins,  shining 
with  white  marble,  and  glistening  with  all  sorts  of  other 
brig  lit  metals,  out  of  which  laborious  mines  those  appointed 
overseers  cause  the  gold  to  be  dug  up  by  the  labor  of  a  vast 
multitude  of  people.  *  *  *  *  *  * 

"The  earth  which  is  hardest  and  full  of  gold,  they  soften 
by  putting  fire  under  it,  and  then  work  it  out  with  their 


210 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


hands.  [Gunpowder  had  not  been  invented  in  those  days, 
and  the  expedient  adopted  for  working  out  the  rock  was  a 
very  excellent  one.]  The  rocks  thus  softened  and  made 
more  pliant  and  yielding,  several  thousands  of  profligate 
wretches  [this  scarcely  applies  to  our  miners]  break  into 
pieces  with  hammers  and  pickaxes.  There  is  one  artist  that 
is  the  overseer  of  the  whole  work,  who  marks  out  the  stone, 
and  shows  the  laborers  the  way  and  manner  how  he  would 
have  it  done.  Those  that  are  the  strongest  among  them  that 
are  appointed  to  this  slavery,  provided  with  sharp  iron 
pickaxes,  cleave  the  marble- shining  rock  by  mere  force  and 
strength,  and  not  by  any  sleight  of  hand.  They  undermine 


VERTICAL    SECTION    OF    A    QUARTZ    MINE. 


not  the  rock  in  a  direct  line,  but  follow  the  bright  shining 
vein  of  the  mine.  They  carry  lamps,  fastened  to  their  fore 
heads,  to  give  them  light,  being  otherways  in  perfect  dark 
ness  in  the  various  windings  and  turnings  wrought  in  the 
mine  ;  and  having  their  bodie  s  appearing  sometimes  of  one 
color  and  sometimes  of  another  [according  to  the  nature  of 
the  mine  where  they  worked] ;  they  throw  the  lumps  and 
pieces  of  the  stone  cut  out  of  the  rock  upon  the  floor.  And 
thus  they  are  employed  continually  without  intermission,  at 
the  very  nod  of  the  overseer  or  tax-master,  who  lashes  them 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  211 

severely,  besides.  And  there  are  little  boys  who  attend  upon 
the  laborers  in  the  mine,  and,  with  great  labor  and  toil, 
gather  up  the  lumps  and  pieces  hewed  out  of  the  rock  as 
they  are  cast  upon  the  ground,  and  carry  them  forth  and  lay 
them  upon  the  bank.  Those  that  are  about  thirty  years  of 
age  take  a  piece  of  the  rock  of  such  a  certain  quantity,  and 
pound  it  in  a  stone  mortar  with  iron  pestles,  till  it  be  as  small 
as  a  vetch  ;  then  those  little  stones  so  pounded  are  taken  from 
them  by  women  and  older  men,  who  cast  them  into  mills, 
that  stand  together  near,  in  a  long  row ;  and  two  or  three 
of  them  being  employed  at  one  mill,  they  grind  it  so  long 
till  it  be  as  small  as  fine  meal,  according  to  the  pattern 
given  them.  *  *  *  *  *  At  length,  the  masters  of  the 
work  take  the  stone  thus  ground  to  po \vder,  and  carry  it 
away  in  order  to  the  perfecting  of  it.  They  spread  the 
mineral  so  ground  upon  a  broad  board,  somewhat  hollow, 
and  lying  shelving,  and  pouring  water  upon  it,  rub  it 
and  cleanse  it,  and  so  all  the  earthy  and  drossy  part 
being  separated  from  the  rest  by  the  water,  it  runs 
off  the  board,  and  the  gold,  by  reason  of  its  weight, 
remains  behind.  Then,  washing  it  several  times  again, 
they  first  rub  it  lightly  with  their  hands ;  afterwards 
they  draw  up  the  earthy  and  drossy  matter  with  slender 
sponges,  gently  applied  to  the  powdered  dust,  till  it  be  clean 
pure  gold.  At  last  other  workmen  take  it  away  by  weight 
and  measure,  and  these  put  it  into  earthen  urns,  and, 
according  to  the  quality  of  gold  in  every  urn,  they  mix 
with  it  some  lead,  grains  of  salt,  a  little  tin,  and  barley 
bran.  Then  covering  every  pot  close,  and  carefully  daubing 
them  over  with  clay,  they  put  them  in  a  furnace,  where  they 
abide  five  days  and  nights  together ;  then,  after  they  have 
stood  to  cool  a  convenient  time,  nothing  of  the  other  matter 
is  to  be  found  in  the  pots,  but  only  pure  refined  gold,  some 
little  diminished  in  the  weight." 

The  plan  adopted  for  saving  the  fine  gold,  without  the 
use  of  quicksilver,  may  have  been  a  good  one,  but  we 
imagine  our  California  miners  would  make  good  wages  out 
of  their  Ethiopic  "tailings,"  provided  the  rock  paid  well 
at  first—  S.  F.  Herald,  1857. 


212  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


CLEOPATRA. 

SHE  following  remarkable  poem  was  published 
in  BlacJcwood'1  s  Magazine.  The  vivid  brilliancy 
of  description,  and  the  sensual  richness  of  color 
which  characterize  the  first  half  of  the  poem, 
are  very  fascinating,  while  the  power  of  animal 
passion  in  the  closing  portions  presents  a  singu 
lar  psychological  study : — 

Here,  Charmian,  take  my  bracelets : 

They  bar  with  a  purple  stain 
My  arms.     Turn  over  my  pillows — 

They  are  hot  where  I  have  lain. 
Open  the  lattice  wider, 

A  gauze  on  my  bosom  throw, 
And  let  me  inhale  the  odors 

That  over  the  garden  flow. 

I  dreamed  I  was  with  my  Antony, 

And  in  his  arms  I  lay ; 
Ah,  me !  the  vision  has  vanished — 

Its  music  has  died  away. 
The  flame  and  the  perfume  have  perished— 

As  this  spiced  aromatic  pastille 
That  wound  the  blue  smoke  of  its  odor 

Is  now  but  an  ashy  hill. 

Scatter  upon  me  rose  leaves, 

They  cool  me  after  my  sleep, 
And  with  sandal  odors  fan  me 

Till  into  my  veins  they  creep;  . 

Reach  down  the  lute,  and  play  me 

A  melancholy  tune, 
To  rhyme  with  a  dream  that  has  vanished, 

And  the  slumbering  afternoon. 

There,  drowsing  in  golden  sunlight, 

Loiters  the  low,  smooth  Nile, 
Through  slender  papyri,  that  cover 

The  sleeping  crocodile ; 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  213 

The  lotus  lolls  on  the  water, 

And  opens  its  heart  of  gold, 
And  over  its  broad  leaf-pavement 

Never  a  ripple  is  rolled. 
The  twilight  breeze  is  too  lazy 

Those  feathery  plants  to  wave, 
And  yon  little  cloud  is  as  motionless 

As  a  stone  above  a  grave. 


Ah,  me !  this  lifeless  nature 
Oppresses  my  heart  and  brain  ! 

Oh  !  for  a  storm  and  thunder — 
For  lightning  and  wild,  fierce  rain ! 

Fling  down  that  lute — I  hate  it ! 
Take  rather  his  buckler  and  sword, 

And  crash  them  and  clash  them  together, 

o 

Till  this  sleeping  world  is  stirred. 

Hark  !  to  my  Indian  beauty — 

My  cockatoo,  creamy  and  white, 
With  roses  under  his  feathers — 

That  flashes  across  the  light. 
Look !  listen  !  as  backward  and  forward 

To  his  hoop  of  gold  he  clings ; 
How  he  trembles,  with  crest  uplifted, 

And  he  shrieks  as  he  madly  swings ! 
Oh,  cockatoo,  shriek  for  Antony  ! 

Cry,  "  Come,  my  love,  come  home  !" 
Shriek,  "  Antony  !  Antony  !  Antony !" 

Till  he  hears  you  even  in  Rome. 


There — leave  me,  and  take  from  my  chamber 

That  wretched  little  gazelle, 
With  its  bright,  black  eyes  so  meaningless, 

And  its  silly  tinkling  bell ! 
Take  him — my  nerves  he  vexes — 

The  things  without  blood  or  brain, 
Or,  by  the  body  oflsis, 

I'll  snap  his  thin  neck  in  twain ! 


214  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Leave  me  to  gaze  at  the  landscape 

Mistily  stretching  away, 
When  the  afternoon's  opaline  tremors 

O'er  the  mountains  quivering  play; 
Till  the  fiercer  splendor  of  sunset 

Pours  from  the  west  its  fire, 
And  melted,  as  in  crucible, 

Their  earthly  forms  expire ; 
And  the  bald,  blear  skull  of  the  desert 

With  glowing  mountains  is  crowned, 
That,  burning  like  molten  jewels, 

Circle  its  temple  round. 


I  will  lie  and  dream  of  the  past  time, 

JEons  of  thought  away, 
And  through  the  jungle  of  memory 

Loosen  my  fancy  to  play ; 
When,  a  smooth  and  velvety  tiger, 

Ribbed  with  yellow  and  black, 
Supple  and  cushion-footed, 

I  wandered,  where  never  the  track 
Of  a  human  creature  had  rustled 

The  silence  of  mighty  woods, 
And  fierce  in  a  tyrannous  freedom, 

I  knew  but  the  law  of  my  moods. 
The  elephant,  trumpeting,  started 

When  he  heard  my  footsteps  near, 
And  the  spotted  giraffes  fled  wildly 

In  a  yellow  cloud  of  fear. 
I  sucked  in  the  noontide  splendor, 

Quivering  along  the  glade ; 
Or,  yawning,  panting,  and  dreaming, 

Basked  in  the  tamarisk  shade, 
Till  I  heard  my  wild  mate  roaring, 

As  the  shadows  of  night  came  on, 
To  brood  in  the  trees'  thick  branches, 

Till  the  shadow  of  sleep  was  gone. 
Then  I  roused,  and  roared  in  answer, 

And  unsheathed  from  my  cushioned  feet 
My  curving  claws,  and  stretched  me, 

And  wandered  my  mate  to  greet. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  215 

We  toyed  in  the  amber  moonlight, 

Upon  the  warm,  fiat  sand, 
And  struck  at  each  other  our  massive  arms — 

How  powerful  he  was  and  grand ! 
His  yellow  eyes  flashed  fiercely 

As  he  crouched  and  gazed  at  me, 
And  his  quivering  tail,  like  a  serpent, 

Twitched,  curving  nervously; 
Then,  like  a  storm,  he  seized  me, 

With  a  wild,  triumphant  cry, 
And  we  met,  as  two  clouds  in  heaven, 

When  the  thunders  before  them  fly; 
We  grappled  and  struggled  together, 

For  his  love,  like  his  rage,  was  rude ; 
And  his  teeth  in  the  swelling  folds  of  my  neck  . 

At  times,  in  our  play,  drew  blood. 

Often  another  suitor — 

For  I  was  flexile  and  fair — 
Fought  for  me  in  the  moonlight, 

While  I  lay  crouching  there, 
Till  his  blood  was  drained  by  the  desert, 

And  ruffled  with  triumph  and  power, 
He  licked  me  and  lay  beside  me 

To  breathe  him  a  vast  half  hour. 
Then,  down  to  the  fountain  we  loitered, 

Where  the  antelopes  came  to  drink: 
Like  a  bolt  we  sprang  upon  them, 

Ere  they  had  time  to  shrink; 
We  drank  their  blood  and  crushed  them, 

And  tore  them  limb  from  limb, 
And  the  hungriest  lion  doubted 

Ere  he  disputed  with  him. 

That  was  a  life  to  live  for ! 

Not  this  weak  human  life, 
With  its  frivolous,  bloodless  passions, 

Its  poor  and  petty  strife ! 
Come  to  my  arms,  my  hero, 

The  shadows  of  twilight  grow, 
And  the  tiger's  ancient  fierceness 

In  my  veins  begins  to  flow. 


216 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Come  not  cringing  to  sue  me  ! 

Take  me  with  triumph  and  power, 
As  a  warrior  that  storms  a  fortress ! 

I  will  not  shrink  or  cower. 
Come,  as  you  came  in  the  desert, 

Ere  we  were  women  and  men, 
When  the  tiger  passions  were  in  us, 

And  love  as  you  loved  me  then ! 

Attributed  to  W.  W.  Story, 


A    CONTINENT    COVERED    WITH    ICE. 

PEOFESSOB  AGASSIZ  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  conti 
nent  of  North  America  was  once  covered  with  ice  a  mile  in 
thickness,  thereby  agreeing  with  Professor  Hitchcock,  and 
other  geological  writers,  concerning  the  glacial  period.  In 
proof  of  this  conclusion,  he  says  that  the  slope  of  the  Alle- 
ghany  range  of  mountains  is  glacier- worn  to  the  very  top, 
except  a  few  points  which  were  above  the  level  of  the  icy 
mass.  Mount  Washington,  for  instance,  is  over  six  thousand 
feet  high,  and  the  rough,  unpolished  surface  of  the  summit, 
covered  with  loose  fragments,  just  below  the  level  of  which 
glacier  marks  come  to  an  end,  tells  that  it  lifted  its  head 
above  the  desolate  waste  of  ice  and  snow.  In  this  region, 
then,  the  thickness  of  the  ice  can  not  have  been  much  less 
than  six  thousand  feet,  and  this  is  in  keeping  with  the  same 
kinds  of  evidence  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  for  when  the 
mountains  are  much  below  six  thousand  feet,  the  ice  seems 
to  have  passed  directly  over  them,  while  the  peaks  rising  to 
that  height  are  left  untouched.  The  glacier,  he  argues,  was 
God's  great  plow;  and  when  the  ice  vanished  from  the 
land,  it  left  it  prepared  for  the  husbandman.  The  hard  sur 
face  of  the  rocks  was  ground  to  powder,  the  elements  of  the 
soil  were  mingled  in  fair  proportions ;  granite  was  carried 
into  the  lime  regions,  lime  was  mingled  with  the  arid 
and  unproductive  granite  district,  and  a  soil  was  prepared 
fit  for  the  agricultural  uses  of  man.  There  are  evidences  all 
over  the  polar  regions  to  show  that  at  one  period  the  heat  of 
the  tropics  extended  all  over  the  globe.  The  ice  period  is 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

supposed  to  be  long  subsequent  to  this,  and  next  to  the  last 
before  the  advent  of  man. 


BROOK    TROUTING. 

;ERE  we  are  by  the  brookside.  This  baby  stream 
was  cradled  among  yonder  hills,  and  these  slop 
ing  meadows  are  its  play -ground.  See  how  it 
dances  through  the  green- sward.  Hark  how  it 
sings.  But  there  are  other  choristers.  The 
pleasant  treble  of  the  lark,  the  sharp  notes  of  gossiping 
blackbirds,  the  sonorous  twang  of  the  bullfrog,  and  the 
semitones  of  clouds  of  ephemerae,  mingle  with  the  refrain  of 
the  rivulet  at  our  feet,  and  the  pot-pourri  is  cheerful  and 
exhilarating,  if  not  harmonious. 

But  it  was  not  alone  to  "  babble  of  green  fields"  that  we 
left  the  "thick  solitudes  called  social,"  to  bivouac  by  the 
brookside.  There  be  shapely  creatures  clouded  with  pur 
ple  and  orange,  and  bedropped  with  crimson,  lying  perdu 
under  the  ripples  of  this  running  water,  waiting  for  what 
Providence  may  send  them  in  the  way  of  provant.  We  pro 
pose  to  be  their  evil  genius,  and  have  brought  the  imple 
ments  with  us  to  betray  them  to  their  ruin.  Sooner,  dear 
reader,  shall  you  catch  Mercury  without  his  caduceus  than 
a  veteran  angler  by  a  trout  stream  without  his  rod.  Forth 
from  thy  well-worn  case,  old  whipper  of  the  brooks.  Age 
has  not  robbed  thy  joints  of  their  suppleness,  nor,  thank 
the  Providence  that  shapes  men's  ends,  has  it  yet  taken  the 
elasticity  out  of  yours.  E  pluribus  unum  ;  the  sections  are 
one.  It  is  easier  to  reconstruct  a  rod  than  a  republic.  Is 
not  this  a  wand  lit  for  the  right  hand  of  a  naiad  ?  a  perfect 
taper  from  butt  to  topmost  ring,  light  as  a  reed  and  springy 
as  a  rapier.  This  multiplier,  too,  is  a  masterpiece.  Count 
less  revolutions  have  not  disorganized  it,  though  it  has  im 
molated  more  victims  than  were  ever  guillotined  in  the  Place 
de  Greve.  It  takes  not  the  accustomed  fingers  of  the  angler 
long  to  prepare  his  tackle.  At  the  end  of  the  transparent 


218  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

leader  dangles  a  "brown  hackle  "—a  killing  fly  when  the 
sun  is  shining  softly  through  the  golden  mist  of  noonday  ; 
and  now  for  a  cast.  Seest  thou,  reader,  that  bit  of  ruffled 
water,  this  side  of  the  gnarled,  hump-backed  old  witch  of  a 
willow  that  is  stooping  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  her  ungainly 
shape  in  the  stream  ?  Right  for  the  center  of  that  little  eddy 
shall  our  feather-fly  make  wing.  Deftly  done,  by  all  that's 
entomological !  Had  the  lure  been  alive  it  could  not  have 
dropped  into  the  ripple  more  naturally.  Aha  !  Credulity 
in  a  broidered  coat  snaps  at  the  temptation. 

A  noble  trout,  a  very  emperor  of  the  brook,  and  hooked 
past  all  redemption.  Whir-r-r-r  I  how  he  makes  the  reel 
spin.  See  him  dart  from  the  surface,  mad  for  freedom. 
Alas!  lithe  acrobat,  thy  last  flip-flap  is  at  hand.  Thou'rt 
e'en  a  drowning,  for  fish  may  have  "  too  much  of  water,"  as 
the  fair  Ophelia.  It  is  mere  folly  to  fight  with  destiny  ;  be 
guided,  come  ashore,  and  die  peacefully  on  the  green-sward. 
We'll  land  him  gently,  "as  if  we  loved  him,"  as  old  Isaak 
says  of  the  worm.  There  he  lies,  poor  victim  of  overween 
ing  confidence,  panting  as  a  hart  panteth  after  the  water- 
brooks,  and  ever  and  anon  making  ineffectual  leaps  stream- 
ward.  Canst  tell  us,  reader,  why  a  captured  fish  always 
jumps  toward  the  water  even  when  he  can  not  see  it  \  It  is 
instinct,  probably.  But  what  is  instinct  ?  We  have  asked 
this  question  of  philosophers,  metaphysicians,  and  other 
far-seeing  individuals,  and,  sooth  to  say,  their  replies, 
though  eminently  profound,  were  utterly  unintelligible. 

Pending  the  solution  of  the  problem,  let  us  continue  to 
beguile  the  fishes.  One  after  another,  from  pool  and  rapid 
and  the  whirling  foam  of  fairy  Minne-ha-has,  we  gather 
them  in.  The  sun  on  his  downward  course  is  frescoing  with 
prismatic  hues  the  western  wall  of  heaven,  and  the  wicker 
basket  at  our  belt  is  full  of  fish  as  rarely  tinted.  What 
shall  we  do  with  them  ?  It  were  gross  vandalism  to  consign 
them  to  the  culinary  mercies  of  the  Maritornes  of  a  village 
tavern.  We  have  tried  that  before,  arid  had  our  trout  so 
bedeviled  in  the  cooking  that  we  hesitated  to  ask  a  blessing 
on  them.  Think  of  the  sacrilege  of  frying  brook  trout  in 
half- rancid  dripping  ?  It  is  rank  heathenism.  Why  send 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  219 

missionaries  to  the  Fejee  islanders  when  the  choice  gifts  of 
the  Great  Provider  are  thus  misused  of  pagans  at  home. 

No  !  those  self  same  denizens  of  the  silvery  streams  shall 
"be  manipulated  by  our  own  hands,  even  at  the  brookside 
from  which  they  were  taken  while  sporting  in  the  cool  and 
limpid  waters — their  native  element ;  and  shall  tickle  our 
palate  while  reposing  in  the  midst  of  umbrageous  foliage. 

We  have  really  enjoyed  it ;  camping  away  up  among  the 
streamlets,  and  have  returned  "edified  and  built  up,"  our 
back  is  straighter,  step  firmer,  hand  steadier,  head  lighter 
than  before  we  went  into  "the  brush."  The  nymph  Spring 
is  not  quite  as  forward  as  she  was  last  year,  but  we  hap 
pened  to  catch  her  in  a  melting  mood,  with  a  warm  sun-flush 
on  her  cheek,  and  a  very  pleasant  time  we  had  together. 
Heaven's  health  commissioners — gentle  breezes  vitalized 
with  the  fresh  breathings  of  tender  grass  unfolding  blossoms 
—are  very  potent  to  preserve  in  their  full  vigor  body  and 
soul,  and  as  we  strolled  hither  along  the  highways  and  by 
ways  of  nature's  green  sanitorium,  it  seemed  to  us  as  if  the 
blue  fiend  Cholera  were  as  effectually  barred  out  of  that 
sweet  pleasaunce  as  if  it  had  been  guarded,  like  Eden  of  old, 
with  flaming  swords. — San  Rafael  (Mar in  Co.}  Journal, 
June  23,  1866. 


THE     CHINESE     EMBASSY     BANQUET. 

[Given  by  the  leading  citizens  of  California,  at  the  Lick  House,  San  Francisco,  April 
28,  1868,  to  Hon.  Anson  Burlingame  and  the  Chinese  Embassy.] 


iHE  grand  banquet  arranged  to  be  given  by  the 
leading  citizens  of  California  to  Hon.  Anson 
Burlingame  and  the  other  members  of  the  Chi 
nese  Embassy,  now  in  this  city  en  route  to  the 
Atlantic  States  and  Europe,  came  off  last  night 
at  the  Lick  House.  All  the  arrangements  were  in 
excellent  taste,  and  the  gathering  was  one  of  the  most  strictly 
representative  ones  ever  convened  in  the  State.  The  occasion 
was  properly  considered  to  possess  an  international  charac- 


220  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

ter,  and  besides  those  of  our  leading  official  and  business 
men  who  were  present,  there  were  representatives,  either 
official  or  commercial,  of  all  the  great  powers  of  the  world. 
It  was  felt  that  as  the  first  embassy  from  China  to  the  na 
tions  abroad  chose  California  for  their  first  halting-place 
outside  of  the  Orient,  its  members  were  entitled  to  a  greeting 
as  broad  and  liberal  as  their  mission. 

MEMBERS     OF     THE     EMBASSY. 

The  Embassy  has  now  been  in  our  city  about  a  month. 
It  is  composed  of  Hon.  Anson  Burlingame,  accredited  Envoy 
Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  from  the  Chi 
nese  Government  to  the  Treaty  Powers  ;  Chih  Taj  en  and 
Sun  Taj  en,  Chinese  Ministers ;  J.  McLeary  Brown,  First 
Secretary  of  Legation ;  Monsieur  E.  de  Champs,  Second 
Secretary  of  Legation.  With  the  above  are  six  student  in 
terpreters,  two  of  whom  have  studied  and  speak  English 
with  considerable  facility,  two  have  studied  French,  and 
two  Russian  ;  two  writers,  a  native  doctor,  and  about  fif 
teen  servants.  Their  Excellencies  Chih  Tajen  and  Sun  Tajen 
are  High  Ministers  of  the  second  rank,  attached  to  the 
Mission  to  learn  and  qualify  themselves  in  the  modes  of 
diplomatic  intercourse,  and  to  assist  Mr.  Burlingame  in  his 
communications  with  the  Chinese  Government. 

The  distinguished  party  have  had  their  head- quarters  at 
the  Occidental  Hotel,  where  the  Imperial  Dragon  of  China 
has  been  kept  flying  from  the  flagstaff.  They  have  been  the 
recipients  of  many  private  hospitalities  and  attentions,  have 
inspected  all  that  was  most  interesting  in  the  city  and  its 
surroundings,  and  have  established  friendly  relations  witli 
a  large  number  of  our  citizens.  Hence  they  met  at  the  ban 
quet  last  night  few  strangers,  and  the  gathering,  while  it 
was  sufficiently  ceremonious  and  decorous,  had  little  of  the 
cold  formality  that  sometimes  obtains  on  such  occasions.  It 
was  altogether  an  enjoyable  social  episode,  as  well  as  a  sig 
nificant  public  event. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  221 


THE     GUESTS 

Numbered  about  two  hundred  and  twenty-five,  and  in 
cluded  representatives  of  the  United  States  Government,  of 
the  State  and  municipal  governments,  and  of  all  the  leading 
institutions  and  interests  of  the  coast.  Gov.  Haight,  as 
President  of  the  occasion,  sat  at  the  middle  of  the  main 
table,  the  chief  members  of  the  Embassy  being  seated  at 
his  right  hand,  contiguous  to  Mayor  McCoppin,  Henry  Bar- 
roilhet,  Consul  of  Peru  ;  Don  Jose  A.  Godoy,  Consul  of 
Mexico ;  G.  C.  Johnson,  Consul  of  Norway  and  Sweden  ; 
William  L.  Booker,  Consul  of  the  British  Empire  ;  and  S. 
F.  Butterworth  of  the  celebrated  New  Almaden  mine.  On 
the  left  of  the  Governor  were  Henry  W.  Halleck,  General 
Commanding  the  Division  of  the  Pacific  ;  H.  K.  Thatcher, 
Admiral  Commanding  the  American  Squadron  on  this  coast ; 
Ogden  Hoffman,  Judge  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United 
States  for  California  ;  Delos  Lake,  District  Attorney  of  the 
United  States  ;  Gen.  McCook,  United  States  Minister  to  the 
Sandwich  Islands  ;  Francis  Berton,  Consul  of  Switzerland  ; 
C.  F.  Mebius,  Consul  of  Bavaria  ;  James  De  Fremery,  Con 
sul  of  the  Netherlands. 

Beside  the  above  were  numerous  other  gentlemen  con 
nected  with  the  army  and  the  navy  and  with  the  civil 
administration  of  the  country.  Among  the  guests  at  other 
tables  were  Maj.-Gen.  John  F.  Miller,  Collector  of  the  Port ; 
R.  B.  Swain,  Superintendent  of  the  Mint ;  R.  G.  Sneath, 
President  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  ;  Thomas  H.  Selby, 
President  of  the  Merchants'  Exchange  ;  Oliver  Eldridge, 
agent,  on  this  coast,  for  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Com 
pany  ;  ex-Governor  F.  F.  Low  ;  Judge  Sawyer  of  the  Cali 
fornia  Supreme  Court;  Judge  Currey ;  Maj.-Gen.  Rose- 
crans ;  Senators  Hager,  Tubbs,  and  Rose ;  Charles  Meiri- 
ecke,  Bremen  Consul ;  Charles  E.  Hitchcock,  Hawaiian 
Consul ;  Alvinza  Hayward ;  W.  C.  Ralston  ;  ex-Congress 
man  Howard,  of  Michigan  ;  Brig.  -Gen.  Leonard  ;  Eugene 
L.  Sullivan;  Alpheus  Bull;  James  S.  Pierce;  Edward 
Tompkins  ;  Newton  Booth  ;  A.  P.  Stanford,  and  many  other 
well-known  citizens.  One  table  was  largely  occupied  by 


322  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  leading  Chinese  merchants  of  this  city,  associated  with 
some  of  their  countrymen  of  the  Embassy,  and  this  party, 
with  their  rich  national  costumes,  intelligent  faces,  and 
lively  enjoyment  of  the  occasion,  were  very  much  observed. 

THE    DINIXG    KOOM. 

The  selection  of  the  Lick  House  dining-hall  was  very  hap 
py.  It  is  unquestionably  the  finest  dining-saloon  in  the 
Union.  Its  size  is  64  feet  wide,  by  87  feet  long,  and  32  feet 
high.  At  a  height  of  20  feet  a  gallery  8  feet  wide  is  built, 
extending  back  from  the  main  body  of  the  hall,  and  communi 
cating  by  numerous  passages  with  the  outer  corridors.  The 
ceiling  of  the  hall  is  arched,  with  pendants  at  the  corners. 
The  walls  are  paneled,  and  the  balcony  arches  or  alcoves  are 
supported  by  Corinthian  pillars.  The  walls,  ceiling  and  pil 
lars  are  finished  and  ornamented  in  white  plaster.  Light  is 
admitted  through  twelve  large  skylights  of  stained,  ground 
and  cut  glass,  surrounding  three  panels  in  the  ceiling,  from 
which  depend  elegant  chandeliers  lit  with  gas.  The  iloor  is 
a  handsome  mosaic  of  different  colored  woods.  The  doors 
are  massive,  and  composed  of  elegantly  polished  woods. 
In  the  eleven  main  panels  of  the  lower  walls  are  as  many  oil 
paintings  of  Pacific  coast  scenery,  each  picture,  with  the 
frame,  measuring  seven  by  nine  feet  ;  while  at  the  four  cor 
ners  are  French-plate  mirrors,  nine  by  twelve  feet  in  size. 
The  paintings  were  executed  by  Thomas  Hill,  in  a  broad 
and  effective  style,  and  represent  with  much  fidelity  four 
scenes  in  the  Yosemite  Valley  ;  one  each  of  the  Geysers,  of 
Sugar  Loaf  Rock  (on  the  Placerville  route  across  the  Sierra 
Nevada),  of  Fort  Point,  Seal  Rock,  Popocatapetl  (in  Mexi 
co),  and  of  Mount  Hood,  in  Oregon.  They  were  painted  to 
order  two  years  ago,  just  prior  to  Mr.  Hill's  departure  for 
Boston,  where  he  is  now  painting,  but  only  placed  in  the 
panels  last  week.  The  frames  are  of  a  new  style,  devised 
and  partly  made  by  the  owner  of  the  house,  Mr.  Lick.  They 
consist  of  outer  and  inner  rounded  moldings  of  rosewood, 
between  which  is  a  surface  of  plate-glass,  showing  an  ele 
gant  scroll  pattern  in  gold  work  on  a  black  ground.  A  large 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  223 

clock  over  the  main  entrance  from  the  lower  floor  is  simi 
larly  framed. 

THE    SCENE    AT    DINNER. 

Beside  the  above  ornaments  none  were  added  to  the  hall 
for  the  occasion  of  the  banquet  except  a  few  flags  of  differ 
ent  nationalities,  which  were  hung  gracefully  over  the  bal 
cony  arches  and  at  the  ends  of  the  room,  and  a  very  tasteful 
disposition  of  fresh  flowers  in  grateful  profusion.  The  flags 
of  China  and  the  United  States  were  hung  together  over  the 
place  occupied  by  the  President  and  the  Embassy.  The  nu 
merous  tables  were  ornamented  with  bouquets,  a  small  one 
being  in  the  glass  of  each  guest.  The  room  was  filled  with 
the  delightful  odor  of  roses,  and  brilliant  with  the  flashing 
lights  of  the  chandeliers  reflected  from  the  large  mirrors. 
The  paintings  and  flower-garlands  gave  an  air  of  elegance 
to  the  walls.  In  the  balconies  were  stationed  the  musicians, 
who  gave  at  intervals  during  the  evening  a  charming  selec 
tion  of  airs  on  the  piano  and  French  horn.  Mr.  Schlotte, 
who  is  famous  for  his  solos  on  the  latter  instrument,  led  the 
music.  The  opening  quartette  on  French  horns  was  admi 
rably  plaj^ed,  and  the  entire  musical  programme  was  per 
formed  with  the  nicest  effect.  The  sounds  were  soft  and 
soothing,  and  mingled  with  the  hum  of  conversation  without 
disturbing  it.  When  the  company  were  all  met  and  were 
busy  at  the  tables,  the  scene  was  a  picturesque  and  anima 
ted  one,  and  was  made  more  picturesque  by  the  unique  cos 
tumes  of  the  Chinese,  the  brilliant  uniforms  of  the  military, 
naval  and  consular  representatives,  and  by  the  amiable  in 
trusion  into  the  balconies  of  a  few  ladies  as  spectators  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  evening. 

The  President  of  the  banquet,  Gov.  Haight,  called  the  com 
pany  to  order  at  the  close  of  the  repast,  and  announced  the 
first  regular  toast  of  the  evening,  TJie  President  of  the  Uni 
ted  States,  to  which  Hon.  Delos  Lake  responded  in  the  fol 
lowing  words  : — 

SPEECH    OF    HON.    DELOS    LAKE. 

Mr.  Chairman — The  toast  which  has  just  been  offered 


224:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

will  command  the  respect  of  every  man  who  appreciates  the 
dignity  and  importance  of  the  office  of  Chief  Magistrate  of 
the  Republic,  and  of  none  more  than  the  accredited  rep 
resentative  of  the  High  Priest  and  Imperial  Father  of 
370, 000, 000  of  people.  Never  has  the  health  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States  been  proposed  under  more  interesting 
or  more  gratifying  circumstances.  This  sumptuous  banquet 
is  the  expression  of  American  gratitude  for  that  liberal  pol 
icy  which  has  induced  an  empire  whose  authentic  history 
begins  three  thousand  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ,  and 
which,  through  all  the  intervening  centuries,  has  preserved 
an  almost  unbroken  isolation,  to  select  as  the  interpreter  of 
its  thoughts  and  the  exponent  of  its  intentions  a  distinguished 
citizen  of  the  youngest  nation.  The  spectacle,  regarded  by 
that  light  which  irradiates  and  reveals  the  future,  is  full  of 
significance.  Here  the  oldest  and  the  newest  civilizations 
have  met  together. 

You,  gentlemen  of  the  Embassy,  eminent  at  home  and 
respected  here,  would  ruffle  the  vaunted  equanimity  of  your 
ancestors,  could  they  rise  from  their  tomb  and  behold  you  in 
this  place  surrounded  by  these  associates.  You  have  come 
from  a  land  where  for  nearly  five  thousand  years  the  un 
mixed  race  to  which  you  belong  has  dwelt  in  busy  and 
crowded  seclusion,  to  a  country  at  least  twice  as  extensive 
as  your  own,  capable  of  supporting  a  population  of  more 
than  800,000,000,  and  yet  possessing  less  than  one-tenth  of 
the  number  of  your  own  people  ;  whose  vast  prairies  and 
almost  boundless  forests  were  scarcely  disturbed  by  human 
industry,  when,  in  1637,  the  first  British  ship  reached  the 
teeming  city  of  Canton. 

You  come  from  a  land  whose  language  and  literature  are 
original  and  fixed,  to  a  country  whose  language  and  whose 
literature  are  the  cultivation  of  many  ages  and  nations,  and 
changeable  as  the  civilization  among  which  they  exist.  You 
have  come  from  a  land  where  the  fifteen  maxims  of  Confu 
cius  form  the  exclusive  basis  of  morality  and  philosophy,  to 
a  country  where  all  moral  creeds  consistent  with  the  public 
safety  are  tolerated,  and  where  systems  of  philosophy  are 
born  in  a  day  and  die  in  a  generation. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  225 

Yon  have  come  from  a  land  where  the  imperial  will,  ad 
vised  by  the  ancient  ' '  Len  Lee ' '  code,  is  the  supreme  law, 
to  a  country  governed  by  a  written  Constitution,  which  can 
be  altered  by  the  people,  and  by  laws  made  for  every  emer 
gency,  and  various  as  the  wants  they  are  made  to  supply. 
You  have  come  from  a  land  where  the  supreme  ruler  rep 
resents  the  deities  you  adore,  to  a  country  whose  officials 
are  the  creatures  of  their  constitiients,  and  before  whose 
highest  legislative  body,  without  revolution,  without  com 
mercial,  financial,  political,  or  social  derangement,  its  execu 
tive  head  is  now  undergoing  a  trial  which  may  terminate  in 
his  removal.  You  come,  in  short,  from  a  land  of  extreme 
conservatism  and  intense  realism,  to  a  country  of  the  most 
active  progress  and  disturbing  enthusiasm. 

This  meeting  spans  fifty  centuries,  and  links  together  two 
extremes — each  of  which  is  without  a  parallel.  Am  I  not 
correct,  then,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  describing  the  occasion  as 
extraordinary  and  auspicious  ?  And  when  we  consider  the 
results  which  must  follow  the  movement  in  which  our  emi 
nent  countryman  is  engaged,  what  prophet  shall  be  bold 
enough  to  attempt  their  enumeration  ? 

For  nearly  200  years  the  East  India  Company  monopo 
lized  commerce  with  China,  and  for  years  after  their  mon 
opoly  was  broken  the  British  continued  to  control  that 
lucrative  trade ;  but  the  enterprising  spirit  and  matchless 
energy  of  our  people  have  overcome  the  advantages  which 
Great  Britain  thus  obtained,  and  the  tide  is  on  the  turn.  In 
its  relations  with  the  Celestial  Empire  the  United  States  is 
now  placed  on  a  level  with  the  most  favored  nations,  and 
its  geographical  position,  and  the  line  of  palatial  steamers 
established  by  American  enterprise,  soon  to  be  followed  by 
an  oceanic  telegraph  and  the  completion  of  the  Pacific  Rail 
road,  before  long  must  render  this  continent  the  principal 
avenue  of  communication  between  Europe  and  Asia,  and 
raise  this  metropolis  of  the  Pacific  to  the  loftiest  height  of 
monetary  power. 

Let  us,  then,  here  warmly  acknowledge  the  honor  which 
the  Emperor  of  China  has  paid  to  our  country  and  to  our 
President.     May  the   reciprocity  of  interests  thus  gener 
is 


226  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

ously  recognized  be  followed  by  an  interchange  of  influ 
ences  which  shall  contribute  to  the  prosperity  of  both 
nations.  May  we  appreciate  and  adopt  the  thrift,  the 
industry,  the  patience,  the  fortitude,  the  veneration  for  age, 
the  wise  conservatism  for  which,  the  Chinese  are  pre-emi 
nent  ;  and,  through  our  efforts,  may  civilization  complete 
its  cycle  by  illuminating  the  land  of  its  birth  with  all  the 
gathered  splendors  of  five  thousand  years. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Lake's  remarks,  Gov.  Haight 
read  the  second  regular  toast — The  Army  of  the  United 
States. 

Major- General  Halleck  arose  to  respond,  and  after  the 
applause  which  his  appearance  evoked  had  subsided,  he 
spoke  as  follows  :— 

GENERAL    HALLECIv's    REMARKS. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen — I  thank  you,  in  the  name 
of  my  comrades  of  the  army,  for  the  complimentary  toast 
just  offered.  On  an  occasion  like  this,  and  in  this  presence,  I 
shall  be  excused  for  not  speaking  as  a  military  officer.  We 
are  assembled  to  welcome  the  civil  representatives  of  a 
foreign  and  friendly  power — of  a  great  nation  witli  which 
we  have  a  large  and  rapidly  increasing  commercial  inter 
course.  I  will,  therefore,  speak  rather  as  a  citizen,  and  as 
a  California!!. 

We  all  know  that  America  derived  its  civilization  from 
Europe,  and  that  European  civilization  was  in  a  great 
measure  derived  from  Asia.  This  tide  has  for  ages  been 
flowing  westward.  The  result  is  that  men  are  much  better 
acquainted  with  what  is  east  than  what  is  west  of  them. 
Europeans  know  more  about  Asia  than  we  do  about  Amer 
ica  ;  and  the  people  of  the  Atlantic  States  are  more  familiar 
with  Europe  and  European  matters  than  they  are  with  the 
capacities  and  wants  of  the  Pacific  States. 

An  amusing  illustration  of  this  occurred  a  few  months 
ago.  A  high  official  in  Washington — a  very  intelligent  and 
able  man — in  complaining  to  me  of  the  expenses  of  the 
military  establishment  on  this  coast,  suggested  that  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  227 

expenses  might  be  reduced  by  establishing  all  the  military 
posts  in  Arizona  and  Nevada  on  the  banks  of  navigable 
rivers,  where  they  could  be  supplied  by  water  transporta 
tion.  I  could  only  reply  that  we  had  not  yet  discovered 
any  navigable  streams  in  the  interior  of  Arizona,  and  that  I 
knew  of  no  river  of  that  description  running  through  the 
Sierra  Nevadas.  With  this  example  before  us,  I  think  we 
Californians  may  be  pardoned  for  some  ignorance,  and  no 
little  prejudice,  in  regard  to  the  countries  and  peoi)le  west 
of  us. 

Not  many  years  ago  these  Asiatic  nations  were  excluded 
from  the  pale  of  European  international  law.  It  was  held 
by  European  statesmen — and  the  doctrine  was  defended  by 
John  Quincy  Adams — that  the  Christian  powers  had  a  right- 
to  compel  them  to  trade  with  us,  in  such  articles  and  on 
such  terms  as  we  saw  fit  to  dictate.  Thanks  to  the  liberal 
views  of  the  present  age,  and  to  our  increasing  respect  for 
independent  nationalism,  they  are  now  held  and  treated 
with  as  having  equal  rights  under  the  laws  of  international 
comity  and  commercial  intercourse. 

I  regard  this  as  one  of  the  most  important  movements  of 
modern  times.  It  is  already  breaking  down  the  barriers  of 
Oriental  and  Occidental  prejudice  ;  and  it  will  eventually 
lead  to  the  harmony  and  civilization  of  the  world.  And  for 
this  we  are,  in  no  small  degree,  indebted  to  the  official  acts 
of  our  distinguished  guest  and  his  diplomatic  associates. 

Standing,  as  we  do  here,  on  the  extreme  western  verge  of 
our  Republic,  overlooking,  as  it  w^ere,  the  coast  of  Asia, 
and  occupying  the  future  center  of  the  trade  and  commerce 
of  the  two  worlds,  this  matter  is  of  great  and  almost  para 
mount  importance  to  us.  If  that  civilization  which  has  so 
long  moved  westward  with  the  star  of  empire  is,  now  puri 
fied  by  the  principles  of  true  Christianity,  to  go  on  round 
the  world  till  it  reaches  the  place  of  its  origin,  and  makes 
the  Orient  blossom  again  with  its  benign  influences,  San 
Francisco  must  be  made  the  abutment,  and  international 
law  the  bridge,  by  which  it  will  cross  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
The  enterprises  of  the  merchants  of  California  have  already 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  abutments,  and  diplomatists  and 


228  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

steam  and  telegraph  companies  are  rapidly  accumulating 
materials  for  the  construction  of  the  bridge. 

GOV.  IIAIGHT'S  SPEECH. 

The  object  of  this  festival  is  the  proper  commemoration 
of  a  great  historic  event,  arid  to  welcome  in  this  first  land 
ing  place  in  the  territory  of  the  United  States  a  distinguished 
gentleman,  your  guest,  who  is  on  his  way  to  represent  the 
Chinese  Empire  at  the  capitals  of  America  and  Europe. 
The  event  to  which  I  refer  is  one  of  those  which  mark  a 
step  forward  in  human  progress,  introducing,  as  it  does,  an 
empire,  one  of  the  oldest,  if  not  the  oldest,  of  all  that  exist 
on  the  globe,  into  the  great  family  of  nations. 

For  centuries  this  people  has  remained  almost  entirely  ex 
cluded  from  intercourse  with  Europe  and  America.  A  wall 
of  separation  has  prevented  them  from  contact  with  the 
civilization,  arts,  commerce,  polity,  and  religion  of  the 
Western  World.  Mercantile  enterprise  and  religious  devo 
tion  have  vainly  sought  to  overthrow  the  barriers  which  a 
jealous  spirit  of  seclusion  has  erected  and  maintained  against 
contact  with  those  who  were  regarded  by  the  people  of  that 
empire  as  outside  barbarians.  The  antiquity  of  Chinese 
civilization,  the  perfection  to  which  many  of  the  arts  have 
attained  among  the  people,  the  value  of  some  of  their  agri 
cultural  products,  especially  that  far-famed  herb  that 
"cheers  but  not  inebriates,"  their  lack  of  knowledge  of 
the  religion  of  the  Bible,  have  all  operated  as  powerful 
incentives  to  efforts,  both  selfish  and  unselfish,  to  open  the 
door  to  freedom  of  trade  and  interchange  of  products  and 
ideas  with  the  people  of  that  vast  empire.  While  opinions 
differ  upon  the  question  of  immigration  and  other  subjects, 
there  is  and  can  be  no  difference  of  opinion  upon  the  de 
sirableness  of  unrestricted  commercial  intercourse  with 
China,  and  with  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  To  us  in  Cali 
fornia  the  appointment  by  that  Government  of  an  American 
citizen,  as  its  organ  of  communication  with  the  Western 
Powers,  is  an  event  of  peculiar  interest.  The  discovery  of 
gold  here,  and  the  consequent  rush  of  adventurous  emigra 
tion  across  the  plains  and  mountains  have  brought  the  oldest 


-»  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  229 

and  youngest  of  nations  face  to  face  on  opposite  shores  of 
this  great  ocean. 

The  young,  impulsive,  progressive  civilization  of  America 
comes  in  direct  contact  with  the  ancient,  venerable,  and 
peculiar  civilization  of  Asia.  Events,  some  of  which  are, 
perhaps,  not  creditable  either  to  China  or  to  Europe,  have 
culminated  in  unlocking  the  Chinese  mind  from  the  fetters 
in  which  it  has  been  bound  by  centuries  of  exclusion  from 
Caucasian  progress,  until  we  see  the  remarkable  spectacle 
of  a  citizen  of  our  young  Republic  selected  as  the  bearer  of 
offers  of  commerce  and  amity  between  the  Eastern  and 
Western  World. 

I  will  not  attempt,  at  this  time,  to  picture  the  grand  re 
sults  which  I  trust  will  flow  from  this  auspicious  event,  not 
merely  to  America  and  to  Europe,  but  to  China  and  to  man 
kind.  I  see  in  the  near  future  a  vast  commerce  springing 
up  between  the  Chinese  empire  and  the  nations  of  the 
West ;  an  interchange  of  products  and  manufactures  mu 
tually  beneficial ;  the  watchwords  of  progress  and  the  pre 
cepts  of  a  pure  religion  uttered  to  the  ears  of  one-third  of 
the  human  race  hitherto  resisting,  with  the  inertia  of  a  dead 
weight,  all  progress,  material,  political,  social,  or  spiritual. 

As  Chief  Magistrate,  then,  of  this  Western  State  of  the 
Union,  I  welcome  you,  sir,  as  the  Embassador  of  that  vast 
empire,  to  the  territory  of  the  Republic  which  you  are  still 
proud  to  call  your  native  land.  I  doubt  not  you  have  ac 
cepted  a  great  and  sacred  trust  in  no  selfish  or  narrow  spirit, 
either  of  personal  advantage  or  of  seeking  exclusive  privi 
leges  for  our  own,  over  other  nations,  and  so,  in  the  name 
of  commerce,  of  civilization,  of  progress,  of  humanity,  and 
of  religion,  on  behalf  not  merely  of  California,  or  America, 
but  of  Europe  and  of  mankind,  I  bid  you  and  your  asso 
ciates  welcome  and  God-speed. 


SPEECH    OF    HON.    AXSON     BTJBLINGAME. 

Gov.  Haight  read  the  following  toast  :  —  "  Our  Guest  —  TJie 
son    of   the  youngest  and   representative,    of   the    oldest 

or  THI** 


fTJ  STIVE 


230  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

Government"  and  announced  that  Hon.  Anson  Burlingame 
would  respond. 

As  Mr.  Burlingame  arose,  the  entire  company  stood  up 
and  greeted  him  with  three  cheers,  which  made  the  banquet 
hall  tremble.  He  said  :— 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen — In  rising  to  respond  to 
the  sentiment  which  you  have  just  done  me  the  honor  to 
propose,  I  feel  a  weight  of  responsibility  such  as  never  before 
pressed  itself  upon  me.  I  stand  between  two  civilizations, 
now  for  the  first  time,  by  their  representatives,  face  to  face, 
and,  belonging  to  one,  I  am  called  upon  to  respond  for  the 
other.  The  situation  is  a  novel  one,  and  my  sincere  desire 
is  that  I  may  be  able  to  meet  it  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to 
put  at  hazard  the  great  interests  which  have  been  confided 
to  me.  I  shall  ask  your  indulgence,  therefore,  and  your 
generous  construction  of  the  language  I  may  use.  This  is 
not  the  time  nor  the  place  to  enter  upon  an  exposition  of 
the  purposes  of  the  mission.  Until  it  shall  have  been  re 
ceived  at  Washington,  it -seems  to  me  that  diplomatic  pro 
priety  requires  that  it  should  limit  itself  to  the  exchange  of 
such  official  courtesies  only  as  it  shall  meet  in  its  way.  In 
this  sense,  then,  I  respond  to  the  sentiment  which  has  been 
offered.  In  this  sense,  then,  Mr.  Chairman,  do  I  respond  to 
your  own  eloquent  language,  and  to  this  decorous  and  im 
posing  reception. 

I  say  that  this  is  not  the  time  nor  the  place  on  which  to 
enter  into  any  exposition  of  the  purposes  of  the  mission. 
Not  because  there  is  little  to  say,  not  because  there  is  any 
mystery  about  the  mission.  No,  sir !  There  is  nothing  in 
its  origin  that  I  should  not  be  glad  to  tell  you  ;  there  is 
nothing — no  one  purpose  of  it— that  I  should  not  be  ashamed 
to  conceal.  It  came  to  me  unsolicited  ;  it  was  accepted  in 
the  broad  interests  of  civilization.  You  said  truly,  sir,  when 
you  said  that  the  mission  would  not  be  used  by  me  in  any 
partial  or  limited  sense.  If  I  know  myself,  it  shall  be  con 
ducted  only  in  the  interests  of  all.  This  mission  is  not  the 
result  of  any  accident,  or  of  any  special  design  ;  it  is  the 
result,  the  legitimate  consequence,  of  events  which  have 
recently  occurred  at  Pekin,  the  capital  of  China.  It  was 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  231 

not  until  recently  that  the  West  was  brought  into  proper 
relations  with  that  empire.  Previously,  affairs  went  on 
upon  a  system  of  misunderstandings,  resulting  in  mutual 
misfortune.  It  was  not  until  the  year  1860  that  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  Treaty  Powers  met  the  great  men  who  carry 
on  the  affairs  of  the  Chinese  empire,  and  coming  into  per 
sonal  relations  with  them,  they  had  occasion  to  modify  their 
views  as  to  the  capacity  and  as  to  the  intentions  of  those 
men.  And  they  were  led  straightway  to  consider  how  they 
should  substitute,  for  the  old  false  system  of  force,  one  of 
fair  diplomatic  action.  They  addressed  themselves  resolute 
ly  to  the  discussion  of  that  question,  and  that  discussion 
resulted  in  the  adoption  of  what  is  called  the  co-operative 
policy,  which  is  briefly  this  :  An  agreement  on  the  part  of 
the  Treaty  Powers  to  act  together  upon  all  material  ques 
tions  ;  to  stand  together  in  defense  of  their  treaty  rights  ; 
and  the  determination,  at  the  same  time,  to  give  to  these 
treaties  a  generous  construction  ;  a  determination  to  main 
tain  the  foreign  system  of  customs,  and  to  support  it  by  a 
pure  administration,  and  upon  a  cosmopolitan  basis  ;  an 
agi^ement  to  take  no  concessions  of  territory  to  the  Treaty 
Powers,  and  never  to  menace-  the  territorial  integrity  of 
China.  These  agreements  are  at  the  foundation  of  the  co 
operative  policy.  You  will  perceive  that  they  leave  China 
perfectly  free  to  develop  herself  in  precisely  such  form  of 
civilization  as  she  may  desire — at  such  time  and  in  such 
manner  as  she  pleases.  It  leaves  her  waters  under  her  own 
control,  and  her  lands  safe. 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  co-operative  policy.  I  do  not  pro 
pose  here  to-night  to  speak  of  the  protracted  discussions 
which  led  to  that  result.  I  did  not  intend — and  it  would  be 
improper  to  do  so — to  speak  of  the  action  of  the  living  in 
this  regard,  but  I  would  speak  of  the  dead.  There  is  one 
who  is  identified  with  that  policy,  and  with  the  establish 
ment  of  justice  in  China,  who  ought  never  to  be  passed 
over  in  silence  or  forgotten — Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  the  late 
British  Minister  at  Washington.  That  great  man,  recalling 
the  traditions  and  the  practices  of  his  own  country,  said 
that  they  jarred  upon  the  moral  sense  of  England,  and  that 


232  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

he  was  ready  upon  his  own  responsibility  to  reverse  them. 
He  was  ready  to  lead  against  them,  and  he  did  lead  against 
them,  so  fairly  and  so  ably,  as,  in  the  first  place,  to  win  the 
respect  of  his  colleagues  ;  in  the  second  place,  to  win  the 
support  of  his  country,  and  in  the  third  place,  to  win  the 
admiration  of  the  diplomatic  world. 

It  is  not  time  yet  to  speak  at  length  of  the  results  of  that 
policy.  I  can  not  foretell  the  future  ;  I  can  only  speak  to 
some  extent  of  the  recent  past.  And  as  I  do  so,  I  must  aver 
that  that  policy  has  borne  rich  fruits.  Under  its  inspiring 
influence  commerce  has  sprung  into  being  ;  trade  has  in 
creased  from  $82,000,000  to  $300,000,000;  steamboats  have 
been  multiplied  ;  arsenals  have  been  built ;  light-houses 
have  been  erected  ;  hundreds  of  foreigners  have  been  taken 
into  the  service  of  China,  under  the  leadership  «f  one  of 
the  ablest  men  in  the  world.  This  flag  which  is  above  us 
(the  imperial  flag  of  China),  has  been  adopted  as  the  first 
national  flag  of  China.  Wheaton'  s  International  Law  has 
become  and  is  taken  as  a  text-book  for  that,  great  empire. 
The  influence  of  Christian  missions  has  been  advanced  from 
the  Yellow  Sea  even  to  the  great  plains  of  Mongolia,  and  a 
great  college  has  been  established  at  Pekin,  where  foreign 
or  modern  science  is  to  be  taught,  as  well  as  the  foreign 
languages — a  great  college  which  will  be  looked  up  to  by 
the  eleven  thousand  students  of  China  who  go  up  every 
three  years  to  Peking  to  take  their  third  and  fourth  degrees, 
and  to  look,  as  they  term  it,  into  the  mirror  of  the  mind,  to 
see  what  it  has  to  reveal  to  them.  And  finally,  as  a  result, 
I  think  directly,  of  that  fair  and  generous  policy,  it  has  sent 
this  mission  forth  on  its  errand  of  good  will.  As  I  have 
said,  I  will  not  speak  at  length  to-night  of  its  purposes.  I 
must  reserve  myself  for  questions  as  they  arise  ;  but  this  I 
will  say,  Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen,  that  this  mission 
means  progress.  It  means  that  China  desires  to  come  into 
warmer  and  more  intimate  relations  with  the  West.  It 
means  that  she  desires  to  come  under  the  obligations  of  that 
international  law  of  which  you,  sir  [General  Halleck],  are 
one  of  the  ablest  exponents,  to  the  end  that  she  may  enjoy 
the  advantages  of  that  law.  It  means  that  China,  conscious 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  233 

of  lier  own  integrity,  wishes  to  have  her  questions  stated— 
that  she  is  willing  to  submit  her  questions  to  the  general 
judgment  of  mankind.  It  means  that  she  intends  to  come 
into  the  brotherhood  of  nations.  It  means  commerce ;  it 
means  peace  ;  it  means  a  unification  in  its  own  interest  of 
the  whole  human  race.  It  means — as  you  have  said  here 
to-night — that  it  is  one  of  the  mightiest  movements  of  mod 
ern  times.  And  though  this  ephemeral  mission  may  pass 
away,  that  great  movement  will  go  on.  The  great  deed  is 
done.  The  fraternal  feeling  of  400,000,000  people  has  com 
menced  to  flow,  through  the  land  of  Washington,  to  the 
older  nations  of  the  West,  and  it  will  flow  forever. 
Who  is  there  that  would  check  it?  Who  is  there  that 
would  say  to  China,  "We  wish  to  have  no  other  rela 
tions  with  you  than  such  as  we  establish  in  our  own 
interests,  and  enforce  at  the  cannon's  mouth?"  I  trust 
there  are  none  such.  I  believe,  rather,  that  this  fraternal 
meeting  is  the  true  exponent  of  the  sentiments  of  the  masses 
of  the  people.  I  believe  this  occasion  reflects  more  truly 
that  enlarged  spirit  which  is  not  alone  devoted  to  trade,  but 
also  to  civilization  and  progress — that  great  and  liberal  spirit 
which  Avould  not  be  content  with  exchanging  goods  with 
China,  but  would  also  exchange  thoughts  with  her ;  that 
would  inquire  carefully  into  the  causes  of  that  sobriety  and 
that  industry  of  which  you,  sir  [Governor  Haight],  made 
mention  ;  that  would  learn  something  of  the  long  experience 
of  that  people ;  that  would  question  those  institutions  which 
have  withstood  the  storms  of  time  as  to  the  secrets  of  their 
stability  ;  that  would  ask  what  means  that  free  competition 
by  which  the  son  of  the  lowliest  coolie  may  rise  to  the 
highest  office  in  the  empire  ;  and  makes  scholarship  the  test 
of  merit ;  that  does  not  believe  that  genius  is  dead  in  the 
land  of  Confucius  ;  that  does  not  believe  the  powers  of  the 
mind  shall  no  more  be  kindled  and  burn  on  the  soil  beneath 
which  rest  the  bones  of  the  inventors  of  porcelain,  of  gun 
powder,  of  the  compass,  of  paper  and  printing.  That  does 
not  believe  the  Christian' s  hope  should  cease  to  bloom  where 
the  Christian  martyrs  fell.  Ricei,  Yerbrest,  Schaal,  Mor 
rison,  Milne,  Bridgeman,  Culbertson,  and  a  host  of  others 


234:  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

lived  and  labored,  and  died,  praying  and  hoping  that  the 
day  would  arrive  when  that  great  nation  would  stretch  forth 
its  arms  toward  the  shining  banners  of  Christianity  and 
Western  civilization.  That  hour  has  struck — the  day  is 
here. 

I  will  not,  for  my  strength  will  not  permit  it,  pursue  these 
enticing  themes.  I  will  rather  return  to  the  first  purpose  of 
my  rising,  which  was  to  return,  for  myself  and  my  asso 
ciates,  our  sincere,  our  grateful  thanks,  for  this  cordial,  this 
magnificent  greeting.  It  does  honor  to  California  ;  it  makes 
me  proud  of  the  State  of  my  adoption.  'Not  because  it  is 
the  reception  of  a  few  individuals.  No  !  But  because  it  is 
a  warm  welcome  to  a  great  cause.  I  assure  you  that  in  all 
my  wanderings,  the  sweetest  memories  which  will  come  up 
to  me,  along  with  the  recollection  of  your  bright  skies, 
your  golden  fields,  and  your  measureless  hospitalities,  the 
pleasaritest,  the  dearest  recollections  that  will  come  up  to 
my  mind  will  be  those  of  this  night,  when  California,  speak 
ing  through  the  lips  of  her  eloquent  Chief  Magistrate,  and 
the  other  eloquent  gentlemen  who  have  spoken— through 
these  representatives  of  your  "  solid  men,"  without  distinc 
tion  of  party — has  given  a  generous  and  fearless  reception 
to  the  first  mission  sent  forth  by  one-third  of  the  human 
race  to  the  nations  of  the  West.  And  now,  thanking  you 
for  this  generous  greeting,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  farewell. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Burlingame'  s  eloquent  speech  the  hall 
again  resounded  with  prolonged  cheering  and  applause. 

SPEECH    OF    CHIH    TAJEN. 

Governor  Haight  next  read  the   sixth  regular  toast : — 

u  Their  Excellencies,  Chili  and  Sun,  and  the  Junior  Members 
of  the  Mission" 

To  which  Chih  Tajen  responded.  He  read  from  manu 
script  in  his  own  language,  and  the  interpreter  of  the  Em 
bassy  then  gave  the  translation  as  folloAVS  :  — 

Honorable  Governor — I  do  not  rise  with  the  intention  of 
adding  any  thing  to  what  Mr.  Burlingame  has  said  in  reply 
to  the  toast  of  this  mission,  of  which  he  is  the  responsible 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  235 

chief.  I  would  only  beg  to  express  for  myself,  my  col 
league,  Sun  Taj  en,  and  the  attaches  of  the  mission,  our 
sincere  thanks  not  only  for  the  cordial  reception  we  have 
received  from  you  this  evening,  but  also  for  the  more  than 
kind  attentions  that  have  been  paid  us  since  our  arrival  in 
San  Francisco.  We  can  not  but  look  upon  our  passing  so 
journ  in  California  as  a  most  auspicious  and  cheering  com 
mencement  of  our  diplomatic  tour.  In  the  case  of  a  pioneer 
mission  such  as  this,  it  is  plain  that  success  or  failure  must 
depend  in  a  great  degree  on  the  character  of  the  persons  to 
whose  charge  it  is  intrusted  ;  and  the  Government  of  China 
is  fully  sensible  of  the  rare  advantage  it  has  had  in  being 
able  to  place  at  the  head  of  this,  its  first  mission  to  foreign 
Powers,  a  diplomatist  of  Mr.  Burlingaine' s  position  and 
ability.  With  him  to  lead  us  we  need  fear  no  failure  ;  and 
my  country  will  have  cause  to  congratulate  herself,  if  this, 
her  first  step  toward  closer  intercourse  with  other  nations, 
be  as  prolific  of  good  results  for  her,  as  your  efforts  and 
labors  in  California  have  been  in  attaining  to  such  a  pitch 
of  prosperity  in  the  short  period  of  eighteen  years. 

In  conclusion,  I  would,  with  permission,  say  a  word  to 
my  own  countrymen  resident  in  California.  Gentlemen, 
Directors  of  the  Six  Companies — I  address  you,  and  through 
you  all  our  fellow-countrymen  in  the  State.  It  has  given 
me  great  pleasure  to  meet  you  in  this  distant  land,  and  to 
learn  that  you.  are  prosperous  in  your  several  callings.  On 
leaving  Pekin  I  was  charged  by  his  Majesty,  our  august 
Emperor,  to  assure  you  of  his  affectionate  interest  in  your 
welfare.  It  is  his  Majesty's  hope  that,  though  living  in  a 
distant  land,  you  will  ever  strive,  by  your  conduct,  to  •  up 
hold  the  respectability  and  good  name  of  your  native  coun 
try.  To  do  so,  let  me  urge  you  not  to  forget  the  precepts 
which  have  been  handed  down  from  age  to  age  by  the  wise 
and  good  men  of  China.  Do  not  fail  to  pay  due  regard  to 
the  requirements  of  the  various  social  relations,  and  neglect 
not  your  moral  duties  as  men.  Be  careful  to  obey  the  laws 
and  regulations  of  the  nation  in  which  you  reside.  If  you 
do  so,  and  at  the  same  time  pursue  your  callings  in  accord 
ance  with  the  principles  of  right  and  propriety,  success  can 


236  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

not  fail  to  attend  your  labors  ;  while  a  contrary  course  will 
infallibly  bring  on  you  failure  and  misfortune. 

I  feel  confident  that  you  will  show  yourselves,  by  your 
good  conduct,  worthy  of  his  Majesty's  affectionate  interest 
in  your  welfare,  and  will  not  disappoint  the  good  opinions 
I  have  been  led  to  form  of  you. 

LETTER   FKOM   HOIS".    EUGENE    CASSEKLY. 

The  seventh  regular  toast  was  to  have  been  responded  to 
by  Hon.  Eugene  Casserly,  but  he  was  not  present,  and  sent 
the  following  letter  as  expressive  of  his  sentiments  : — 

Messrs.  T.  If.  Selby,  0.  Eldridge,  R.  B.  Swain,  A.  Bull 
and  oilier  s,  Committee  of  Inmlalion — GENTLEMEN  :  I  am 
much  obliged  for  your  invitation  to  attend  a  dinner  at  the 
Lick  House  on  Tuesday  evening,  the  28th  inst.,  to  Hon. 
Anson  Burlingame,  Embassador  for  China,  &c. 

I  regret  to  have  to  deny  myself  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
Mr.  Burlingame  and  the  other  gentlemen  at  the  dinner.  Al 
low  me,  however,  to  make  in  this  way  a  few  general  ob 
servations  on  the  purpose  of  the  mission. 

From  the  want,  perhaps,  of  a  just  perspective  we  are 
prone  to  estimate  untruly  the  events  of  our  own  time.  Yet 
when  an  empire  on  the  other  shore  of  the  Pacific,  which  is 
the  oldest  in  the  world,  and  which  includes  within  its  sway 
nearly  one-tenth  of  the  habitable  globe  and  more  than  one- 
third  of  its  population,  steps  out  from  its  seclusion  of  centu 
ries,  and  of  its  own  will  tenders  to  the  nations  of  the  earth  the 
relations  of  commercial  intercourse,  the  event  would  seem 
to  be  not  only  of  historic  interest  generally,  but  of  marked 
present  importance  to  some  countries,  and  to  our  own  at 
least  as  much  as  to  any.  That  the  selection  for  the  head  of 
this  mission  of  a  distinguished  American,  many  years  our 
Minister  at  Pekin,  was  a  tribute  not  only  to  the  general 
candor,  justice  and  humanity  of  our  American  policy  and 
diplomacy  in  China,  but  also  to  the  personal  qualifica 
tions  of  Mr.  Burlingame  himself,  may  be,  without  impro 
priety,  assumed  by  us,  since  it  has  been  frankly  conceded 
in  European  quarters  of  least  friendly  disposition  toward 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  237 

American  progress  in  the  East.  Whether  it  has  any  spe 
cially  favorable  significance  toward  the  United  States  in 
future  negotiations,  it  is  perhaps  not  for  us  to  say. 

This  much,  it  certainly  authorizes  us  to  expect  that  we 
will  stand  on  equal  ground  with  the  most  favored  nations. 
We  ask  no  more.  In  the  contest  for  that  Eastern  trade 
which  has  always  heretofore  been  thought  to  carry  with  it 
the  commercial  supremac}^  of  the  globe,  America  asks  only 
a  fair  field  even  as  against  her  oldest  and  most  formidable 
rival. 

Nature,  and  our  position  as  the  nearest  neighbor  of  East 
ern  Asia,  separated  from  her  only  by  the  great  highways 
of  the  ocean,  have  placed  in  our  hands  all  the  advantages 
that  we  need.  Whatever  benefits  shall  result  to  the  world 
at  large,  from  any  great  extension  of  its  commercial  relations 
with  that  country,  a  full  measure  of  them  must  of  necessity 
fall  to  our  share,  increasing  with  each  succeeding  year. 
Favored  by  vicinity,  by  soil  and  climate  on  our  own  terri 
tory,  with  a  people  inferior  to  none  in  enterprise  and  vigor, 
without  any  serious  rivalry  anywhere,  all  this  Pacific  coast 
is  naturally  ours,  or  is  our  tributary.  With  our  many  and 
growing  lines  of  steamships  thrown  out  in  every  direction, 
and  on  every  route  ;  with  our  flag  in  every  port,  and  our 
enterprise  on  every  shore,  from  Panama  to  Alaska,  we  hold 
as  ours  the  great  ocean  that  so  lately  rolled  in  solitary 
grandeur  from  the  equator  to  the  pole.  In  the  changes  cer 
tain  to  be  effected  in  the  currents  of  finance,  of  exchange, 
and  of  trade  by  the  telegraph  and  the  railway,  bringing  the 
financial  centers  of  Europe  and  the  United  States,  by  way 
of  San  Francisco,  within  a  few  weeks  of  the  ports  of  China 
and  the  East,  San  Francisco  must  become,  at  no  distant  day, 
the  banker,  the  factor,  and  the  carrier  of  the  trade  of  East 
ern  Asia  and  the  Pacific,  to  an  extent  to  which  it  is  difficult 
to  assign  limits. 

On  this  coast,  and  especially  in  this  State,  labor,  we 
rejoice  to  say,  is  a  more  important  interest,  has  a  better 
position  and  a  more  just  return  than  else  were  in  the  world. 
Our  democratic  representative  institutions  rest  too,  on  a 
basis  of  extended  suffrage,  and  general  political  equality. 


238  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

For  these  and  other  reasons  sufficiently  well-known,  it 
should  not  be  matter  of  surprise  here  or  elsewhere,  that 
there  is  a  strong  settled  feeling  among  us  as  to  the  movements 
hitherward  of  those  countless  myriads,  industrious,  active, 
and  migratory — compared  to  which  the  whole  population 
of  this  coast  is  not  a  handful — from  the  shores  of  China,  not 
farther  removed  from  us  to-day  than  were  the  great  hives 
of  European  immigration  from  our  Atlantic  sea-board  thirty 
or  forty  years  ago. 

Whatever  may  be  the  diversity  of  opinion  on  this  point, 
there  can  be  none  whatever  as  to  the  great  special  advan 
tages  to  this  State  and  coast  of  commercial  relations  on  an 
extended  and  permanent  footing  Avith  Eastern  Asia  and  all 
other  neighboring  countries  on  either  shore  of  the  Pacific. 

With  commercial  relations  comes  commerce,  and  of  com 
merce  we  can  not  well  have  too  much. 

I  am,  gentlemen,  very  respectfully,  your  friend  and 
servant.  E.  CASSERLY. 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  April  28,  1868. 

REMARKS    OF   EDWARD   TOMPKINS. 

In  the  absence  of  Mr.  Casserly,  the  President  called  on 
Edward  Tompkins  to  respond  to  the  toast.  Mr.  Tompkins 
said  :— 

He  must  be  a  bold  man  who  would  venture  to  occupy 
the  place  of  the  Senator  elect,  but  somebody  must  step  into 
the  breach,  and  he  might  as  well  as  another.  The  toast— 
The  Republic  of  Nations,  the  United  States  of  the  World- 
is  a  theme  so  vast  and  suggests  interests  so  boundless,  that 
weeks  of  reflection  would  not  enable  a  man  to  grasp  all  its 
bearings.  Nations  will  need  a  vast  amount  of  reconstruc 
tion  before  they  are  all  bound  together  in  one  Union.  Asia 
will  need  to  be  made  almost  anew.  Perhaps  it  may  be 
thought  that  Africa  is  reconstructed  already. 

"We  see,"  said  he,  "in  nations  the  impulses  that  mark 
individuals.  One-half  the  human  race  remain  in  the  old 
homestead  of  the  Asiatic  continent,  sticking  to  the  old  soil 
and  to  old  ideas  ;  while  the  other,  ages  ago,  started  out  on  a 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  239 

• 

prospecting  expedition,  and  they  have  kept  on  going  west 
until  they  have  got  so  uneasy  that  some  of  them,  especially 
in  New  England,  are  never  satisfied  so  long  as  they  see  a 
dollar  that  they  have  not  caught,  or  a  rod  of  land  that  they 
have  not  annexed.  And  now  they  have  got  so  far  west  that 
almost  without  thinking  of  it,  they  are  about  getting  over 
on  the  old  homestead  again.  They  are  now  piling  them 
selves  up  on  the  shore  of  the  Pacific,  waiting  for  the  steam 
boat  or  bridge  that  is  to  carry  them  across.  And  here  they 
are  met  by  a  counter-current,  by  a  phenix,  by  something 
that  was  never  seen  before,  a  Yankee  Mandarin,  with  ever 
so  many  tails,  but  tell  tale  is  not  one  of  them.  He  has  fine 
powers  of  saying  a  great  deal  and  meaning  but  little.  Our 
Yankee  curiosity  was  not  entirely  satisfied  by  his  speech 
—warm,  generous,  humanitarian  though  it  was.  We 
tried  the  pumping  process,  but  did  not  succeed.  When 
he  came  to  business  he  was  dry,  very  dry.  He  has  deter 
mined  to  tell  nothing  about  that  till  he  gets  to  Washing 
ton,  but  we  could  guess  commerce  would  come  along 
this  way  on  the  track  of  the  mission  and  back  ;  and  if  it 
did,  San  Francisco  would  certainly  collect  toll  both 
ways. 

This  Embassy  looks  as  though  the  Old  World  were 
ready  to  do  away  with  many  old  rules  and  prepare 
for  the  United  States  of  the  World  if  we  should  take 
the  lead;  but  are  we  ready  to  welcome  them?  It  is 
well  to  say  so,  but  before  we  can  say  so  truly,  the  day 
must  come  when  the  good  man  need  not  blush  among  us 
for  his  own  countrymen  when  the  question  was  asked,  Who 
are  the  heathen  ?  That  question  was  asked  the  other  day 
by  a  leading  journal.  If  the  world  is  to  be  liberalized,  will 
we  do  our  part  ?  When  the  Great  Wall  of  China  is  crum 
bling,  will  we  try  to  use  the  material  anew  in  the  interest  of 
progress,  or  will  we  try  to  make  it  a  ruin  \  Shall  we  meet 
the  Asiatics  as  brothers,  or  as  enemies  to  whom  we  owe 
neither  justice  nor  kindness  ?  There  is  much  to  encourage 
us  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  New  ideas  are  gaining 
ground.  The  great  statesman  of  Berlin  has  merged  twenty 
petty  States  in  one  large  one.  Diplomatists  see  the  current 


240  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

I 

of  the  world's  progress,  and  are  playing  their  games  in  uni 
son  with  it.  And  this  great  mission,  in  harmony  with  the 
spirit  of  the  age,  stepping  at  once  into  greatness,  is  an  evi 
dence  of  the  awakening  of  the  great  Asiatic  nation  to  the 
unity  of  the  interests  of  mankind.  In  closing  my  remarks, 
I  give  you  a  sentiment : — 

"  The  world's  new  day — the  field  of  the  cloth  of  gold  is 
the  whole  earth  ;  the  unity  and  elevation  of  the  race  the 
object  it  secures." 

Eighth  regular  toast — "  Tea :  TJie  cup  that  cheers  but  not 
inebriates. ' ' 


RESPONSE     OP     NEWTOK     BOOTH. 


I  trust,  Mr.  President,  there  is  no  insinuation  in  the  sen 
timent  you  have  just  read,  that  there  are  cups  here  which 
might  both  cheer  and  inebriate.  There  is  nothing  personal 
in  it,  is  there  ?  Are  we  not  all  teetotalers  ?  Certainly,  we 
know  too  well  the  distinction  between  a  tea-cup  and  a  hic 
cup,  to  be  any  thing  else. 

I  remember  an  anecdote  of  Tom  Corwin — that  he  was  once 
at  a  country  tavern,  and  the  landlady,  thinking  she  must  use 
all  her  dictionary  words  in  the  presence  of  so  great  a  man, 
asked  him,  at  the  supper- table,  "if  he  took  his  tea  with 
condiments."  Tom  instantly  replied,  "  Pepper  and  salt,  if 
you  please,  madam,  but  no  mustard." 

Ah  !  if  he  were  only  here  how  he  could  flavor  this  partic 
ular  cup  of  tea  you  have  sent  to  me  "with  condiments"  — 
with  salt,  attic  salt— with  the  most  pungent  spice  of  wit, 
with  the  finest  aroma  of  humor,  until  it  would  become  such 
a  cup  of  tea  as  never  was  tasted  before.  But,  alas  !  "poor 
Tom's  a-cold." 

If  there  be  any  thing  in  the  doctrine,  Mr.  President,  that 
the  thought  and  literature  of  a  people  are  greatly  influenced 
by  what  they  eat  and  drink,  who  shall  be  able  to  estimate 
the  obligations  the  world  is  under  to  tea  \  Take,  for  exam 
ple,  a  great  poem,  a  great  speech,  a  great  book,  who  can 
analyze  it  and  say  what  portion  is  due  to  the  brain-power 
of  the  author,  and  what  to  the  kindly  beverage  that  inspires, 
sustains,  and  soothes  him  ;  or  consider,  what  is  still  better, 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  241 

because  wider  and  deeper,  the  great  current  of  common  life, 
who  can  calculate  how  much  its  course  is  influenced  by  the 
millions  of  throbbing  hearts  which  are  its  sources  ;  and  how 
much  by  the  home  tea-tables,  which  are  its  kindliest  guides? 
I  should  like  to  argue  that  the  pure  teachings  and  inspired 
philosophy  of  Confucius  were  due  in  part  to  tea,  but,  unfor 
tunately  for  that  hypothesis,  Confucius  lived  five  hundred 
Christ,  and  tea  did  not  become  a  national  bev- 
^  the  Chinese  until  eight  hundred  years  after. 
>t  sure  that  is    not  consistent  with  the  theory, 
t  add  to  its  dignity.     It  was  a  triumph  of  the 
T  the  material.    It  was  the  prophecy  of  thought, 
as  a  type  and  verity  in  the  mind  of  Confucius, 
>k  thirteen  hundred  years  to  realize  as  a  fact 
y.     That  is  metaphysics.     Do  you  understand 
Mr.  Chairman?     I  don't.      What  I  am  try- 
5  that  the  teachings  of  the  great  philosopher 
.e  minds  and  characters  of  his  countrymen  that 
i  necessity  of  their  natures,  and  its  cultivation 
al  delight. 

nay  not  the  invention  of  printing,  the  manufac- 
powder  and  paper  by  the  Chinese,  centuries 
iropeans  attained  those  arts,  be  due  to  the  fact 
ese  were  a  nation  of  tea-drinkers  eight  hundred 
it  was  introduced  into  Europe  ? 
^tice  of  tea  by  a  European  was  by  the  traveler 


242  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

To  the  fair  regions  where  the  sun  doth  rise, 
Whose  rich  productions  we  so  justly  prize." 

In  1635,  a  traveler,  and  the  secretary  of  an  embassy,  by 
the  way,  after  describing  the  wonderful  virtues  attributed 
to  tea  in  the  East,  naively  adds  :  "  But  this  herb  is  now  so 
well  known  in  most  parts  of  Europe,  where  many  persons 
of  quality  use  it  with  good  success,  that  it  must  needs  be 
known  what  are  its  good  and  bad  qualities." 

No  wonder  its  use  was  confined  to  "  persons  of  quality," 
for  years  afterward  the  price  in  England  ranged  from  £6  to 
£10  per  pound — allowing  for  the  difference  in  the  value  of 
money,  equal  now  from  $100  to  §300  in  gold.  Thanks  to 
free  commercial  intercourse,  the  price  is  cheaper  and  its  use 
more  general  now. 

The  first  mention  of  tea  in  any  act  of  Parliament  was  in 
1660.  The  East  India  Company. long  enjoyed  a  monopoly 
of  its  importation.  Once  the  Chinese  endeavored  to  organ 
ize  a  counter  monopoly  of  its  importation,  whereat  the  East 
India  Company  was  filled  with  virtuous  indignation,  and 
fulminated  against  the  imposing  of  fetters  upon  trade— by 
the  Chinese. 

Lecky,  in  his  "History  of  Rationalism,"  attributes  import 
ant  effects  on  modern  civilization  to  the  introduction  of  tea 
and  coffee  into  Europe  in  the  sixteenth  century.  After 
speaking  of  the  clubs  formed  in  France,  he  says:  "The 
effect  of  hot  drinks  upon  domestic  life  has  been  even  greater 
in  England  than  on  the  Continent ;  checking  the  boisterous 
revels  that  had  once  been  universal,  and  raising  woman  to 
a  new  position  in  the  domestic  circle,  they  have  contributed 
very  largely  to  refine  manners,  to  introduce  a  new  order  of 
tastes,  and  to  soften  and  improve  the  characters  of  men." 
There  is  one  phase  of  the  influence  of  tea  on  our  civilization 
society  has  not  mentioned,  and  I  will  not  discuss  lest  the 
topic  prove  interminable — I  mean  the  tea-party.  There  is 
one  memorable  tea-party,  however,  I  would  like  to  refer  to. 
1  do  not  mean  that  at  which  Mrs.  Grundy  perpetually  pre 
sides,  but  a  certain  famous  tea-party  that  was  held  in  Boston 
harbor  nearly  a  hundred  years  ago.  I  have  long  thought, 
Mr.  President,  that  Mother  England  had  studied  the  char- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  243 

acters  of  our  grandmothers,  and  sought  to  tempt  them  on 
their  weakest  side.  It  would  have  been  no  sacrifice  to 
refuse  jim-cracks  and  gew-gaws,  but  it  was  not  in  human 
nature  to  suppose  they  would  forego  their  tea.  Shall  we 
ever  sufficiently  admire  the  more  than  Spartan  courage  with 
which  they  turned  from  charming  Young  Hyson  and  delight 
ful  Bohea,  betaking  themselves  to  sage  and  sassafras — 
resolved  to  drink  it  out  on  that  line,  if  it  took  all  the  sum 
mers  and  all  the  winters  of  their  dear  precious  lives  ?  Bless 
ings  on  our  grandmothers  !  I  should  like  to  drink  to  their 
memory  in  a  cup  of  real  Congo.  If  I  should  attempt  to  in 
any  thing  stronger,  and  spirits  can  rap,  they  would  set  these 
glasses  ringing  and  dancing  to  such  music  as  we  never 
heard  before. 

It  was  not  much  tea  the  colonies  required  a  hundred 
years  ago — one  or  two  cargoes  a  year,  and  not  large  ones. 
Now,  if  I  mistake  not,  the  United  States  import  about  forty 
million  pounds  annually,  and  Great  Britain  about  eighty 
million.  What  the  total  export  of  China  and  Japan  is,  I 
know  not,  but  when  I  think  of  this  great  river  of  tea,  which, 
having  its  source  in  the  East,  flows  round  the  whole  earth, 
through  all  lands — of  the  homes  it  gladdens,  of  the  hearts  it 
cheers,  of  the  spirits  it  refreshes,  I  would  wax  eloquent  if  I 
could.  Not  the  vintage  of  Burgundy,  not  bright  Tokay, 
not  old  Falernian,  ripened  in  the  cellars  of  Macsenas,  not 
the  waters  of  Helicon,  have  inspired  so  much  eloquence  and 
song,  nor  a  hundredth  part  of  the  kindly  sentiment  which 
is  the  true  poetry  of  common  life,  as  home-brewed  tea.  Oh  ! 
fondest  recollections  of  home — cheerfulest  joys  of  the  fire 
side  !  Oh !  full  contentment  of  friendship — overflowing 
bliss  of  love  !  Oh !  brightest  stars  of  solitude  that  gleam 
upon  us  in  the  sweet  hours  of  revery,  when  the  earth  sinks 
beneath  our  feet,  and  the  heaven  of  dreams  enfolds  us  in  its 
heaven  of  heavens — how  do  the  association  of  all  these  clus 
ter  around  the  fragrant  cup  of  tea  ! 

Blessings  on  old  China  for  the  gift !  Old  !  She  was  old 
when  the  walls  of  the  Eternal  City  were  built ;  when  the 
foundations  of  the  Pyramids  were  laid.  And  still  she  stands, 
the  apostle  of  the  past,  to  watch  the  flight  of  the  centuries 


244:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

and  count  the  mutations  of  human  affairs.  Not  of  her  can 
it  be  sung  :— 

"  The  Niobe  of  nations — there  she  stands, 
An  empty  urn  within  her  withered  hands." 

She  is  no  Mobe — her  children  are  not  dead.  Her  children 
are  the  arts,  and  they  are  immortal.  Like  the  children  of 
the  fairy  tale — infants  at  home,  they  are  giants  abroad.  She 
holds  no  empty  urn — but  a  tea-urn,  full  and  exhaustless — 
and  all  nations  send  their  ships  to  be  her  cup-bearers. 
Whatever  may  be  the  king,  tea  is  the  queen  of  commerce, 
and  reigns  by  the  divine  right  of  blessing  dispensed  to  all 
her  loving  subjects  everywhere. 

REMARKS    OF    MR.    BOOKER. 

The  ninth  and  last  regular  toast,  ' '  The  Foreign  Consular 
Body  of  San  Francisco"  was  responded  toby  H.  B.  M. 
Consul,  Mr.  Booker.  He  said  :— 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  :  It  is  gratifying  to  me  to 
respond,  on  behalf  of  my  colleagues,  this  evening,  to  the 
toast  with  which  you  have  honored  the  consular  body.  It 
must  be  gratifying  to  you  that  your  distinguished  guest  this 
evening  is  your  fellow- citizen  ;  and  it  must  be  gratifying  to 
him  that  he  is  sent  as  an  envoy  to  his  own  country.  He  will 
be  received  by  all  the  Treaty  Powers  on  the  Atlantic  side 
with  enthusiasm,  and  the  Chinese  gentlemen  associated  with 
him  will  have  an  opportunity  to  study  all  that  can  be  seen, 
and  they  will  appreciate  the  advantages  that  will  result  to 
their  nation  from  the  opening  of  the  country  to  foreign  civ 
ilization.  The  mission  itself  is  a  civilizing  expedition.  Al 
though  China  has  been  civilizing  herself  steadily  for  twenty 
centuries,  the  civilization  of  Europe,  and  lately  of  the  Uni 
ted  States,  has  gone  far  ahead  ;  and  the  arts  of  the  West  are 
as  strange  in  the  East  as  if  their  rudiments  had  never  gone 
from  that  source.  My  thanks  are  due  to  the  gentleman  for 
his  eulogy  of  the  late  Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  than  whom,  a 
purer  man  never  lived,  or  was  more  regretted  at  his  death. 
Without  arrogating  to  myself  any  thing  as  an  Englishman,  I 
think  it  speaks  much  (to  those  who  knew  him)  for  Mr.  Bur- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  245 

lingame,  that  he  was  the  friend  of  Sir  Frederick  Bruce.  On 
behalf  of  the  consular  body,  I  thank  you  for  the  honor  done 
us  this  evening,  and  we  trust  that  this  embassy  will  be 
received  everywhere  in  high  official  circles  with  the  favor 
which  its  good  purpose  merits. 

The  last  toast  of  the  evening— "  The  Fellowship  of  Com 
merce,  the  free  trade  of  nature  ;  it  makes  the  whole  world 
akin"—  was  responded  to  by  Hon.  William  A.  Howard.  He 
enlarged  upon  the  relations  of  commerce  to  civilization,  com 
mented  upon  the  importance  of  inland  no  lest  than  of  foreign 
commerce,  complimented  the  energy  of  our  people,  and 
indulged  in  glowing  anticipations  of  the  future  of  San  Fran 
cisco,  which  he  predicted  would  yet  be  the  largest  American 
city  on  the  largest  ocean  of  the  world  ;  and  closed  amid 
hearty  applause.— £  F.  Bulletin,  April  29,  1868. 


KNIGHTS    OF    THE    QUILL. 

DRIVE  the  quill  quicker  !— faster  drive 

Its  bleeding  point ;  and  harder  strive 

With  lagging  brain 

Benumbed  by  the  pain 

Of  lightning  thought  ! 

Tug  at  your  hair  in  frantic  haste  ; 

Not  a  single  moment  to  waste — 

An  idea  to  lose, 

Or  chance  to  abuse. 

Your  time  is  bought! 

Bought  for  the  public — public  men 
Are  made  by  ink-tears  from  your  pen  ! 
Bought  for  the  public — public  taste 
Is  born  (as  words)  of  ink  you  waste  ! 
Bought  for  the  public — public  weal 
Demands  the  flow  from  ink-tipped  steel ! 
Bought  for  the  public— bought,  and  oh  ! 
Too  often  bringing  purchased  icoe  ! 


246  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Drive  the  quill  faster ! — quicker  drive 

Its  weeping  point ;  but  harder  strive 

To  suck  and  to  drain 

From  the  muddled  brain 

Some  nobler  thought  ! 

Think  how  the  scratching,  screeching  quill 

Can  work  such  good — can  work  such  ill ! 

Let  each  drop  you  waste 

In  your  inky  haste 

Cry  :  Life  is  short  ! 

—S.  F.  Mirror,  August  6,  1860. 


TOWER    OF    SEA-BREAKERS. 


FROM  experiments  which  were  made  some  time  since,  at 
the  Bell  Rock  and  Sherryvore  light-house,  on  the  coast  of 
Scotland,  it  was  found  that  the  force  of  the  breakers  on  the 
side  of  the  German  Ocean  may  be  taken  at  about  a  ton  and 
a  half  upon  every  square  foot  of  surface  exposed  to  them. 
The  Atlantic  breakers  fall  with  double  that  weight,  or  three 
tons  to  the  square  foot ;  and  thus  a  surface  of  only  two 
square  yards  sustains  a  blow  from  a  heavy  Atlantic  breaker 
equal  to  fifty-four  tons.  In  November,  1824,  a  heavy  gale 
blew,  and  blocks  of  limestone  and  granite,  from  two  to  five 
tons  weight,  were  washed  about  like  pebbles  at  the  Ply 
mouth  breakwater,  in  England.  About  three  hundred  tons  of 
such  blocks  were  borne  a  distance  of  two  hundred  feet,  and 
up  the  inclined  plane  of  the  breakwater,  carried  over  it  and 
scattered  over  it  in  various  directions.  A  block  of  limestone, 
seven  tons  weight,  was  in  one  place  washed  a  distance  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet.  Blocks  of  three  tons  weight  were 
torn  away  by  a  single  blow  of  a  breaker,  and  hurled  over 
into  the  harbor,  and  one  of  nearly  two  tons,  strongly  trenailed 
down  upon  a  jetty,  was  torn  away  and  tossed  upward  by  an 
overpowering  breaker. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  247 


REMARKABLE    ESCAPES    OF    EMINENT    MEN. 

fOME  years  ago,  a  young  man  holding  a  sub 
ordinate  position  in  the  East  India  Company' s 
service,  twice  attempted  to  deprive  himself  of 
life  by  snapping  a  loaded  pistol  at  his  head. 
Each  time  the  pistol  missed  fire.  A  friend  enter 
ing  his  room  shortly  afterward,  he  requested  him 
to  fire  it  out  of  the  window,  it  then  went  off  without  any 
difficulty.  Satisfied  thus  that  the  weapon  had  been  duly 
primed  and  loaded,  the  young  man  sprang  up,  exclaiming, 
"I  must  be  reserved  for  something  great!"  and  from  that 
moment  gave  up  the  idea  of  suicide,  which  for  some  time 
previous  had  been  uppermost  in  his  thoughts.  That  young 
man  afterward  became  Lord  Clive. 

Two  brothers  were  on  one  occasion  walking  together, 
when  a  violent  storm  of  thunder  and  lightning  overtook 
them.  One  was  struck  dead  on  the  spot,  the  other  was 
spared  ;  else  would  the  name  of  the  great  reformer,  Martin 
Luther,  have  been  unknown  to  mankind. 

The  holy  St.  Augustine,  having  to  preach  at  a  distant 
town,  took  with  him  a  guide,  who,  by  some  unaccountable 
means,  mistook  the  usual  road  and  fell  into  a  by-path. 
He  afterward  discovered  that  his  enemies,  having  heard  of 
his  movements,  had  placed  themselves  in  the  proper  road 
with  a  design  of  murdering  him. 

Baron,  the  sculptor,  when  a  tender  boy  of  five  years 
old,  fell  into  a  pit  of  a  soap-boiler,  and  must  have  perished, 
had  not  a  workman,  just  entering  the  yard,  observed  the 
top  of  his  head,  and  immediately  delivered  him. 

When  Oliver  Cromwell  was  an  infant,  a  monkey  snatch 
ed  him  from  his  cradle,  leaped  with  him  through  a  garret 
window,  and  ran  along  the  leads  of  the  house.  The  utmost 
alarm  was  excited  among  the  inmates,  and  various  were 
the  devices  used  to  rescue  the  child  from  the  guardianship 
of  the  newly-found  protector.  All  were  unavailing ;  his 
would-be  rescuers  had  lost  courage,  and  were  in  despair 
of  ever  seeing  the  baby  alive  again,  when  the  monkey 


248  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

quietly  retraced  its  steps  and  deposited  its  burden  safely 
on  the  bed.  On  a  subsequent  occasion,  the  waters  had 
well  nigh  quenched  his  insatiable  ambition.  He  fell  into  a 
deep  pond,  from  drowning  in  which,  a  clergyman,  named 
Johnson,  was  the  sole  instrument  of  his  rescue. 

At  the  siege  of  Leicester,  a  young  soldier,  about  seven 
teen  years  of  age,  was  drawn  out  for  sentry  duty.  One  of 
his  comrades  was  anxious  to  take  his  place.  No  objection 
was  made,  and  this  man  went.  He  was  shot  dead  while 
on  guard.  The  young  man  first  drawn  became  the  author 
of  the  Pilgrim''  s  Progress. 

Doddridge,  when  born,  was  so  weakly  an  infant,  he  was 
believed  to  be  dead.  A  nurse  standing  by  fancied  she 
saw  some  signs  of  vitality.  Thus  the  feeble  spark  of  life 
was  saved  from  being  extinguished,  and  an  eminent  author 
and  consistent  Christian  preserved  to  the  world. 

John  Wesley,  when  a  child,  was  only  just  preserved 
from  fire.  Almost  the  moment  after  he  was  rescued,  the 
roof  of  the  house  where  he  had  been  fell  in.  Of  Philip 
Henry  a  similar  instance  is  recorded. 

John  Knox,  the  renowned  Scotch  reformer,  was  always 
wont  to  sit  at  the  head  of  the  table,  with  his  back  to  the 
window.  On  one  particular  evening,  without  being  able 
to  account  for  it,  he  would  neither  himself  sit  in  the  chair 
nor  permit  any  one  else  to  occupy  his  place.  That  very 
night  a  bullet  was  shot  in  at  the  window,  purposely  to  kill 
him  ;  it  grazed  the  chair  in  which  he  sat,  and  made  a  hole 
in  the  foot  of  a  candlestick  on  the  table. 

Many  years  have  now  elapsed  since  three  subalterns 
might  have  been  seen  struggling  in  the  water  off  St.  Helena  ; 
one  of  them  peculiarly  helpless,  was  succumbing.  He  was 
saved,  to  live  as  Arthur  Wellesley,  Duke  of  Wellington. 

The  life  of  John  Newton  is  but  the  history  of  a  marvel 
ous  deliverance.  As  a  youth  he  had  agreed  to  accompany 
some  friends  on  board  a  man-of-war.  He  arrived  too  late  ; 
the  boat  in  which  his  friends  had  gone  was  capsized  and 
all  its  occupants  drowned. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  249 

REMARKS    OX    HELL,     BY    HENRY    WARD  JBEECHER. 


WILL  say  a  few  words  this  evening  in  reply  to 
the  following  letter  which  I  have  received  :— 

"Will  you  please  tell  me,  in  your  Lecture- 
room  Talks,  published  in  the  Independent,  what 
you  mean  by  liell  and  future  punishment  f  My 
mind  is  yearning  for  something  higher  and  more  spiritual ; 
but,  before  I  can  advance  any  further,  I  must  have  these 
terms  explained  by  a  liberal  Christian  man." 

By  the  term  hell,  as  it  is  popularly  used,  we  mean — or  / 
mean— that  state  in  which,  after  this  mortal  life,  the  incor 
rigibly  wicked  are  left  to  their  own  suffering  and  punish 
ment.  If  you  ask  me  the  meaning  of  the  original  word— 
Jiades — I  reply,  that  means  that  state  of  the  dead  which 
immediately  succeeds  this  life  and  the  one  that  is  to  come. 
Or,  if  you  ask  me  what  liell  means  in  the  ordinary  usage, 
and  in  my  usage,  I  reply,  that  it  means  the  state  in  which 
the  incorrigibly  wicked  are  herded  together,  and  suffer  the 
legitimate  result  of  their  wickedness.  I  need  not,  therefore, 
answer  the  second  question  as  to  the  meaning  of  future 
punishment. 

There  has  been  a  mode  of  presenting  the  doctrine  of 
future  punishment,  and  there  has  sometimes  been  a  spirit 
employed  in  the  use  of  it  as  a  motive,  which  have  been  repul 
sive,  not  to  say  shocking.  Not  only  have  we  received  this 
doctrine  as  it  has  come  down  to  us,  clothed  with  material 
figures  and  illustrations,  but  these  figures  and  illustrations 
have  been  magnified  and  worked  up  until  the  doctrine,  as  it 
is  presented  by  human  interpretations  and  expositions,  is 
simply  horrible. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  death  was  one  vast  slaughter 
house  of  torment,  where  wretched,  hopeless  and  helpless 
creatures,  for  the  sins  of  life,  were,  by  every  conceivable 
method  of  exquisite  physical  pain,  badgered  and  beaten 
about  in  an  endless  gyration  of  suffering.  Look  at  the 
Inferno"  of  Dante,  as  an  exposition  of  the  prevalent 


"IVBRSI 

ear 


. . 


250  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOE. 

opinions  of  his  day.  Look  at  the  uLast  Judgment"  of 
Michael  Angelo,  as  an  exposition  of  the  physical  ideas  of 
torment  of  his  day,  where  devils  are  gnawing  the  skulls  of 
the  damned  ;  where  men  are  pitched  about  on  forks  ;  where 
all  possible  modes  of  bodily  distress  are  grossly,  savagely, 
hideously  complicated.  And  consider  these  as  presenta 
tions  of  a  state  of  government  under  which  Christ  is  the 
manifestation  of  God  ! 

This  extreme  materialism,  this  utter  barbarity  of  the  ideas 
which  have  so  widely  prevailed  respecting  future  punish 
ment,  has  been  one  chief  reason  of  the  modern  reaction  that 
has  taken  place  on  that  subject.  Then  we  have  riot,  per 
haps,  made  the  matter  much  better  by  the  arguments  de 
rived  from  the  world  of  moral  government,  which  we  have 
advanced  to  justify  future  and  eternal  punishment,  and 
which  seem  not  to  be  at  all  sound. 

Now,  what  are  these  facts  ? 

The  first  to  which  I  shall  call  your  attention  is,  that  our 
Saviour  is  the  fountain  of  this  doctrine.  If  the  strong  testi 
mony  concerning  a  future  penal  state  has  been  found  chiefly 
in  Paul  or  in  Peter,  then  men  would  very  likely  have  said 
—or  felt,  if  they  did  not  choose  to  say — that  it  was  a  human 
exaggeration.  But  the  remarkable  feature  is,  that  this  doc 
trine  does  not  appear  in  the  Old  Testament  at  all,  and  that 
in  the  New  Testament  it  is,  I  might  almost  say,  but  just  al 
luded  to  anywhere  else  except  in  the  teachings  of  the  Saviour. 
And  the  figures  representing  the  fact,  the  solemn  annuncia 
tion  of  the  fact  itself,  and  the  frequent  use  of  this  great 
shadow  of  dread  in  the  future,  belong  to  that  meek,  and 
loving,  and  gentle,  and  atoning  Lamb  of  God. 

I  do  not  know  what  significance  this  will  have  to  you  ; 
but  I  confess  that  when  I  find  myself  revolting  from  this 
doctrine  on  account  of  the  intense  materialism  of  the  Church 
derived  from  medieval  representations,  and  I  go  to  the  New 
Testament  and  see  the  calm,  frequent,  unequivocal  utter 
ances  of  Christ,  and  think  what  he  was,  how  he  left,  and 
what  he  taught,  the  simple  circumstance  that  it  is  a  doctrine 
of  which  Christ  is  the  author  and  teacher  is  to  me  the  most 
convincing  of  all  things.  Coming,  as  it  does,  from  Christ, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  251 

it  impresses  me  more  strongly  than  it  would  if  it  came  from 
Paul,  or  any  other  of  the  disciples.  Though  I  consider  that 
they  were  inspired,  yet  I  can  not  but  feel  that,  emanating 
from  him  it  is  different  from  what  it  would  have  "been  if  it 
had  emanated  from  either  of  them. 

If,  then,  a  man  says  to  me,  "Do  you  believe  in  future 
punishment 3"  I  have  to  say,  "I  do."  And  if  he  says, 
"How  do  you  reconcile  it  with  the  goodness  and  justice  of 
God?"  I  say,  "The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself  was  the 
very  one  that  introduced  and  taught  it." 

As  to  those  word  arguments  by  which  this  teaching 
of  the  Saviour  is  explained  away,  I  have  only  to  say  that 
any  latitude  of  construction  which  explains  this  away  ex 
plains  away  every  other  teaching  of  his.  If  by  any  process 
of  dissection  and  disjointing  you  can  take  out  that  doctrine 
of  Christ,  I  do  not  know  what  you  can  not  take  out  by  the 
same  process. 

It  is  a  very  awful  and  painful  view.  I  feel  when  I  look 
upon  society  and  think  of  that  doctrine,  as  I  should  if  I 
looked  into  a  crater.  I  shudder.  I  hide  my  eyes  and  heart 
from  it.  It  touches  me  to  the  core  of  my  life.  I  positively 
dare  not  think  of  it  in  certain  moods.  It  is  a  dreadful 
thing. 

But  then,  as  this  is  the  teaching  of  Christ,  a  spiritual 
teacher,  in  respect  to  men  who  are  to  go  out  of  this  life  as 
spirits,  and  to  dwell  in  a  spiritual  realm,  I  hold  that  it  is 
reasonable  to  infer  that  the  punishment  of  the  future  state  is 
not  material  in  any  way  whatever ;  that  it  is  a  moral  and 
spiritual  punishment,  following  the  transgression  of  law; 
that  it  consists  in  the  reaction  of  the  mind,  by  its  own  laws, 
on  itself;  that  it  is  the  being  withdrawn  from  the  Divine 
presence,  and  those  fertilizing  and  joy-inspiring  influences 
which  come  from  personal  communion  with  God.  And  this 
view  takes  away  all  that  repulsiveness  which  we  cannot  but 
feel  when  the  doctrine  of  a  barbaric,  bodily,  material  pun 
ishment  is  taught.  As  no  man  supposes  that  the  streets  of 
heaven  are  paved  with  gold  because  the  Apocalypse  rep 
resents  them  as  being  so  paved,  so  we  are  not  to  suppose 
that  the  gross  representations  of  hell  which  we  find  in  the 


252  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

New  Testament  are  to  be  taken  literally.  As  no  one  sup 
poses  that  the  symbols  employed  to  give  us  some  concep 
tion  of  the  degree  of  joy  in  Heaven  are  meant  to  convey  to 
us  a  conception  of  its  kind,  so  we  are  to  suppose  that  the 
symbolism  which  is  given  of  hell  is  employed  to  represent 
the  degree  rather  than  the  kind  of  unhappiness  there. 


JOHN     LAW. A    BRIEF     SKETCH     OF     HIM. THE     FAMOUS     MISSISSIPPI 

SCHEME. 

;OMANS'  BANKERS'  MAGAZINE  contains  a  very 
interesting  history  of  the  celebrated  John  Law, 
the  projector  of  the  well-known  Mississippi 
scheme,  and  the  author  of  paper  money  in 
France.  Law's  life  is  almost  like  a  romance. 
He  was  born  in  Edinburgh,  in  1761.  His  father 
was  both  goldsmith  and  banker.  Young  Law  entered  into 
his  father's  business  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  He  studied 
diligently  the  principles  of  banking.  When  his  father  died, 
he  inherited  his  property,  quit  the  business,  and  lived  ex 
travagantly  in  London.  Several  years  passed.  Meantime 
he  became  a  famous  gambler.  His  success  was  astonishing. 
But  reverses  came,  and  close  on  the  heels  of  them  a  duel,  in 
which  he  killed  his  adversary.  He  narrowly  escaped  the 
gallows.  He  then  wandered  all  over  Europe,  and  was  dis 
tinguished  in  all  the  chief  cities  as  a  bold  adventurer  and 
successful  gamester.  But  still  he  devoted  many  of  his  hours 
to  the  study  of  financial  affairs.  He  conceived  a  theory  in 
reference  to  paper  money,  which  he  proposed  to  several 
potentates,  for  he  kept  high  company.  Amongst  others,  he 
made  the  acquaintance,  in  the  gambling  saloons  of  Paris, 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  became  a  convert  to  his  theory. 
The  King,  Louis  XIV.,  died ;  the  Duke  became  Regent.  He 
found  France  bankrupt,  and  knew  not  what  to  do.  Law 
opportunely  made  his  appearance,  and  proposed  to  the  Re 
gent  the  scheme  about  which  they  had  so  often  conversed. 
It  was  adopted.  The  results  were  startling.  In  the  course 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  253 

of  a  year  Law' s  notes  rose  to  fifteen  per  cent,  premium.  He 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  whole  kingdom,  and  his  credit 
rose  from  day  to  day.  Branches  of  his  bank  were  almost 
simultaneously  established  at  Lyons,  Rochelle,  Tours,  Ami 
ens,  and  Orleans. 

Cheered  by  success.  Law  commenced  the  famous  project 
which  has  handed  his  name  down  to  posterity.  He  estab 
lished,  with  the  consent  of  the  Regent,  a  company  "  that 
should  have  the  exclusive  privilege  of  trading  to  the  great 
river  Mississippi,  and  the  province  of  Louisiana  on  its  west 
ern  bank.7'  The  country  was  supposed  to  abound  in  pre 
cious  metals.  The  capital  was  divided  into  200,000  shares 
of  500  livres  each. 

Law's  bank  had  worked  such  financial  miracles,  that 
everybody  expected  the  same  dazzling  success  from  the 
"Mississippi,  scheme."  The  frenzy  of  speculation  seized 
upon  the  nobles  and  upon  the  masses.  Everybody,  high 
and  low,  wanted  the  stock.  Crowds  of  thousands  upon 
thousands  crowded  Law's  house  to  buy  the  stock.  Dukes 
and  duchesses  would  wait  for  hours  for  an  audience.  Men 
who  were  poor  in  the  morning  found  themselves  rich  at 
night. 

But  at  length  both  of  his  schemes  failed.  France  was 
thrown  into  a  worse  condition  than  ever.  The  people  who 
had  worshiped  Law  now  became  incensed  against  him. 
Those  who  had  humbly  craved  audience  of  him  now  de 
manded  his  execution  ;  for  ruin,  and  through  his  means,  had 
fallen  upon  thousands.  He  quit  Paris  poor,  when  he  might 
have  amassed  millions.  He  resumed  his  old  occupation  of 
gaming,  and  finally  died  in  straitened  circumstances.  It 
seems  that  he  was  a  sincere  believer  in  his  schemes,  and 
attributed  their  failure  to  mismanagement. 


254:  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


THE    FIRST    INHABITANTS    OF    AMERICA. 

may  be  contended,  and  with  much  plausibility, 
'that  there  exists  no  necessity  of  recurring  to  the 
theories  respecting  a  former  land  connection  be 
tween  America,  Europe  and  Asia,  or  the  proof  of 
the  maritime  enterprise  of  the  ancients — for  colo 
nies  may  have  reached  our  shore  by  the  accidental  drift  of 
canoes  and  other  vessels.  This  opinion  is  abundantly  sup 
ported  by  well  authenticated  instances,  most  of  which  have 
been  recorded,  hence  this  subject  has  attracted  attention. 
Diodorus  relates  that  a  Greek  merchant,  trading  in  Arabia, 
was  seized  by  the  Ethiopians,  and  having  been  placed  in  a 
boat  and  turned  out  to  sea,  was  carried  by  the  winds  to 
Taprobane  or  Ceylon.  In  the  time  of  Eudorus  of  Cyzicus, 
B.  c.  146,  an  Indian  was  found  in  a  boat  on  the  Red  Sea,  who 
upon  learning  the  Greek  language,  stated  that  he  had 
sailed  from  India,  and  had  been  driven  that  distance  by 
the  wind.  Pliny  narrates  that  in  the  days  of  Quintius 
Metellus,  some  strange  and  savage  people  were  driven 
upon  the  German  coast,  and  sent  by  the  Suevi  to  that  gen 
eral.  The  discovery  of  America  by  the  Northmen  was 
accidental ;  and  Iceland  was  discovered  A.  D.  892,  by  some 
marines  who  were  bound  for  the  Faroe  Islands,  but  were 
thrown  out  of  the  way  by  tempests.  In  1684,  several 
Esquimaux,  driven  out  to  sea  in  their  canoes,  were  drifted, 
after  a  long  continuance  of  boisterous  weather,  upon  the 
Orkneys.  It  is  related  that  a  small  vessel,  bound  from 
one  of  the  Canary  Islands  to  Teneriife,  was  forced  out  of 
her  way  by  contrary  winds,  to  within  a  short  distance  of 
Caraccas,  where  meeting  an  English  ship,  she  was  directed 
to  one  of  the  South  American  ports. 

In  1731  another  bark,  sailing  from  Teneriffe  to  one  of  the 
neighboring  isles,  drifted  from  her  course,  and  was  finally 
brought  to  Trinidad.  Cabral,  the  commander  of  the  Portu 
guese  fleet,  set  out  in  the  year  1500  to  the  East  Indies,  while 
prosecuting  the  voyage,  departed  so  far  from  the  African 
coast  as  to  encounter  the  Western  Continent ;  and  thus  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  255 

discovery  of  Brazil  was  entirely  accidental.  In  1745,  some 
vessels  were  forced  out  to  sea,  from  Kamtschatka,  to  one  of 
the  Aleutian  Islands — a  distance  of  several  hundred  miles. 
In  1789,  Capt.  Bright,  his  crew  having  mutinied  and  seized 
his  ship  while  on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  was  placed  with 
eighteen  men  in  a  boat,  provided  only  with  a  small  quantity 
of  provisions,  and  traveled  4,000  miles  in  forty-six  days, 
succeeded  finally  in  landing  at  Tima,  in  the  East  Indies.  In 
1797,  twelve  negroes,  escaping  from  an  African  slave-ship, 
took  to  a  boat,  and  after  five  weeks,  three  of  the  number 
who  had  survived,  were  drifted  ashore  at  Barbadoes.  In 
1799,  three  men  were  driven  out  to  sea  by  stress  of  weather 
from  St.  Helena,  in  a  small  boat,  and  two  of  them  reached  the 
coast  of  South  America  in  a  month — one  having  perished  on 
the  voyage.  In  1820,  150  inhabitants  of  Anna  or  Chain 
Island,  situated  200  miles  east  of  the  Otaheite,  having  em 
barked  in  three  canoes,  encountered  the  monsoon.  Two  of 
the  vessels  were  lost,  but  the  occupants  of  the  third,  after 
being  driven  from  island  to  island,  and  obtaining  a  scanty 
subsistence,  were  found  600  miles  from  their  point  of  depart 
ure.  Three  natives  of  Otaheite,  have  been  met  on  the  island 
of  Wateo,  whither  they  had  drifted  in  a  canoe  over  500 
miles. 

In  1782,  Capt.  Inglefield  of  the  Centaur,  and  eleven  men, 
sailed  upon  the  Atlantic  Ocean  300  leagues,  and  in  an 
open  pinnace,  without  a  compass,  chart  or  sail,  and  were 
ultimately  landed  on  Fayal.  A  native  of  Ulsa  has  been 
found  on  one  of  the  coral  isles  of  Radack,  where  he  had 
arrived  with  two  companions,  after  a  long  voyage  of  eight 
months,  during  which  they  had  been  driven  by  winds  to 
the  amazing  distance  of  1,500  miles.  In  1786  several  natives 
of.  the  Caroline  Islands  were  carried  by  the  winds  and  cur 
rent  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  by  which  means  that  group 
first  became  known  to  Europeans.  The  Japanese  are  often 
accidentally  thrown  upon  the  Philippine  Islands.  In  the 
year  1542,  three  Portuguese  sailed  from  Siam  in  a  junk,  and 
were  driven  out  of  their  course  to  within  sight  of  Japan. 
In  1822,  a  Japanese  junk  was  cast  away  on  the  American 
coast  at  Cape  Flattery,  and  out  of  seventeen  men  only  three 


256  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

were  saved.  In  the  same  year  eleven  of  the  same  nation 
were  drifted  to  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

In  1721,  thirty  men,  women  and  children  were  driven  by 
bad  weather  from  Earrioless  to  Gatiham,  one  of  the  Marian 
Isles,  a  space  of  200  miles,  and  in  1696,  a  like  number  were 
carried  from  Ancorsa  to  Tamar,  one  of  the  Philippines,  about 
eight  hundred  miles.  In  1720,  a  large  canoe,  filled  with 
natives,  arrived  at  the  Island  of  Maurua  from  Rututu,  500 
miles  in  a  direct  coarse.  Subsequently,  another  from 
Otaheite,  600  miles  ;  two  reached  Taheite  from  Hao,  of  the 
existence  of  which  place  the  Otaheitans  were  before  ignor 
ant  ;  and  the  native  missionaries  traveling  among  the  differ 
ent  Pacific  groups  are  continually  meeting  their  countrymen 
who  have  been  driven  out  to  sea. 

Multitudes  of  these  occurrences  must  have  preceded  the 
progress  of  modern  discovery  in  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
oceans,  and  consequently  have  happened  without  leaving 
any  record  or  trace.  Accumulated  cases  of  this  kind  should 
be  taken  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  excepting  Spitz- 
bergen  and  Nova  Zembla  to  the  north,  Falkland  and  Fer- 
gueland's  Island  to  the  south,  whose  inhospitable  climes 
forbid  permanent  habitation  and  subsistence,  no  considera- 
able  extent  of  land  has  been  found  uninhabited,  and  that 
with  the  exception  of  St.  Helena,  the  smallest  islands  capa 
ble  of  supporting  a  population,  including  nearly  all  the 
numerous  islets  of  the  Pacific,  however  distant  from  conti 
nents,  have  been  discovered  tenanted  with  human  beings. 
Our  race  occupies  islands  and  continents  detached  from  the 
fountain-head  of  all  human  life,  and  pervades  nearly  every 
inhabitable  spot  of  the  globe.  Thus  widely  has  the  earth 
been  peopled  in  the  early  periods  of  society — either  by 
maritime  nations  or  by  barbarians  destitute  of  those  arts  of 
civilization  and  that  perfection  in  science  which  enable 
men  to  intrust  their  lives  and  property  without  danger  to 
the  ocean,  and  to  pursue  the  path  of  discovery  in  confident 
security. 

It  is  impossible  to  attribute  this  extensive  distribution— 
this  tide  of  population  flowing  from  island  to  island,  and 
from  continent  to  continent — entirely  to  the  maritime  abili- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  257 

ties  of  former  ages,  and  equally  impossible  in  many  cases  to 
suppose  a  former  land  connection,  as  a  means  of  solving  the 
difficulty.  Experience  affords  the  only  clue  to  this  prob 
lem,  and  shows  that  by  those  adventitious  causes  which  have 
always  been  in  action  since  the  beginning,  man  has  found  his 
way  wherever  his  Maker  lias  prepared  him  an  abode  ;  and 
that,  in  the  language  of  a  distinguished  author:  "Were 
the  whole  of  mankind  destroyed  with  the  exception  of  one 
family,  inhabiting  an  islet  in  the  Pacific,  their  descendants, 
though  never  more  enlightened  than  the  South  Sea  Island 
ers,  or  Esquimaux,  would  in  the  course  of  ages  be  diffused 
over  the  whole  world." 


EULOGY  DELIVERED  UPON  THE  LATE  JOHN  BURBANK,  BEFORE  THE 
SILVER  STAR  LYCEUM,  VIRGINIA,  NEV.,  MARCH  27,  1865,  BY  OSCAR 
T.  SHUCK. 


R.  President  and  Gentlemen :— In  support  of 
the  resolutions  which  I  have  just  read,  I  ask 
your  audience  for  a  brief  while.  I  am  unwill 
ing  that  this  assembly — moved,  as  I  know  it  is, 
by  common  emotions  of  sorrow — should  dis 
perse  itself,  without  adding  to  these  resolutions  my  very 
feeble,  very  humble,  yet  very  earnest  tribute  of  respect 
to  the  character  and  memory  of  our  deceased  friend. 

We  have  just  received  a  most  unwelcome  visitation  from 
that  powerful,  invisible,  invincible  destroyer,  who  is  no 
respecter  of  persons,  and  before  whose  prowess  all  must 
bow.  That  foe  to  human  kind— that  crusher  of  human 
hopes— always  eager  to  attack  either  revered  age,  vigorous 
manhood,  or  budding  infancy— yet  himself  more  invulner 
able  than  superstition  ever  rendered  Achilles— has  intruded 
his  dark  presence  into  our  midst ;  and  a  dutiful  son,  a  prom 
ising  youth,  and  a  boon  companion,  has  been  suddenly 
torn  from  the  parent's  providence,  from  the  scenes  of  busy 
life,  and  from  the  embrace  of  friends  ! 

John  Burbank,  was  born  in  Cherryfield,  in  the  State  of 
Maine,  on  the  6th  day  of  April,  1814.  In  the  year  1855,  he 


258  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

arrived  with  his  father's  family  in  San  Francisco.  About 
one  year  ago  he  came  to  this  city,  where  he  has  since 
resided.  On  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  the  25th  of  March 
instant,  at  his  father1  s  rooms,  on  B  Street,  in  this  city  he 
expired  suddenly,  peacefully,  and  apparently  without  pain, 
in  the  twenty-first  year  of  his  age. 

My  acquaintance  with  deceased  extends  back  only  a 
little  more  than  two  years,  and  therefore  I  can  not  speak 
with  intelligence  of  his  early  boyhood  ;  but,  from  the  first 
night  of  our  introdiiction  in  San  Francisco,  at  the  rooms  of 
the  Pacific  Lyceum,  to  which  we,  with  others  present, 
belonged,  I  have  been  quite  intimate  with  him,  and  have 
been  enabled  to  form  a  very  fair,  if  not  an  entirely  perfect 
conception  of  his  character  and  disposition.  And  in  sooth, 
how  pure  was  that  character  !  how  gentle  that  disposition ! 

Mr.  President,  I  am  not  here  to  utter  any  idle  panegyrics 
or  blind  eulogies.  God  forefend  that  I  should  here  indulge 
in  vain  declamation  !  God  forefend  that  I  should  utter  one 
syllable  of  praise  over  his  body,  now  that  he  is  dead,  which 
would  not  have  sprung  spontaneously  from  my  heart  while 
he  was  yet  with  us  in  the  flesh !  How  often  has  Gray  been 
answered  in  the  negative  ? 

"  Can  stoned  urn  or  animated  bust, 

Back  to  its  mansion  call  the  fleeting  breath  ? 
Can  honor's  voice  provoke  the  silent  dust  ? 

Or  flattery  soothe  the  dull,  cold  ear  of  death  ?" 

Sir,  the  bounds  of  truth  need  not  be  surpassed  on  this 
occasion. 

John  Burbank  was  a  young  man  of  fair  education — having 
some  knowledge  of  the  classics.  He  was  possessed  of  a 
strong,  well-balanced  mind.  He  was  endowed  with  an  intel 
lect  whose  flame  burned,  not  brilliantly,  yet  steadily.  His 
j  udgment,  considering  his  years,  was  quite  mature.  His 
attachments  were  warm  ;  he  was  of  a  quiet,  sober  tempera- 
merit,  of  good  habits,  and  multum  in  parvo,  through  all 
the  vicissitudes  and  perplexities  of  life,  he  "kept  the  even 
tenor  of  his  way."  I  know  of  no  enemy  he  possessed — in 
deed,  it  would  be  difficult  to  point  to  his  equal  in  that  God- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  259 

given  quality  of  acquiring  to  one's  self  the  undivided 
esteem  of  associates.  The  expression  de  mortuis  nil  nisi 
bonum  would  never  be  repeated  were  all  like  him. 

He  had  selected  as  his  profession  through  life  that  noble 
one  to  which  so  many  of  us  present  are  wedded,  and  bade 
fair  to  become  in  early  manhood,  a  ready  practitioner  and  a 
safe  and  sober  counselor.  But  every  plan  has  been  disar 
ranged  ;  every  earthly  hope  has  been  dashed ;  every 
earthly  wish  ungratified !  His  soul  has  departed ;  his 
body  is  fast  resolving  into  dust,  and  only  the  memory  of 
his  modest  life  and  his  radiant  virtues  is  left  us. 

Let  us  now  repress,  if  possible,  our  own  emotions,  and  place 
before  our  eyes  the  sad  picture  of  a  stricken  family  !  Let  us 
look  over  and  beyond  the  white  sierras,  eternal  sentinels  of 
two  young  States  !  and  list  to  the  "  choking  sighs  "  of  mother, 
sister,  brother,  weeping  in  an  agony  of  grief  for  him  who 
was  just  centering  in  his  young  person  all  their  hopes  and 
expectations,  but  who  has  died  far  away  from  them,  and 
from  home,  upon  the  very  threshold  of  manhood,  and  in  a 
dry,  a  rugged,  and  a  barren  land.  It  was  doubtles  sobserved 
that  one  of  the  resolutions  read  seeks  to  express  to  that 
family  our  liveliest  sympathies  for  them  in  their  bereave 
ment,  and  is  entitled  to  our  cordial  and  unanimous  indorse 
ment,  Let  us  show  to  that  afflicted  family  that  our  friend 
lived  esteemed  and  died  regretted  by  all  who  knew  him. 

Mr.  President,  I  can  not  resume  my  seat  without  refer 
ring  to  an  expression  which  fell  from  the  deceased  a  few 
days  before  his  death.  I  met  him  within  a  few  paces  of 
the  building  in  which  the  Judge,  his  father,  holds  his 
chambers,  and  where  Death  so  lately  held  his.  He  was 
then  unstricken  by  disease  ;  he  was  walking  in  the  vigor 
of  youth,  and  the  flush  of  health  triumphed  upon  his  brow. 
Our  conversation  immediately  turned  upon  the  times  and 
the  prospects  of  our  new  State.  Like  many  others,  he  was 
dissatisfied  with  both.  He  told  me  that  he  was  going  to 
leave  this  country — he  added  that  he  was  going  to  Mexico. 
He  foresaw  the  magnitude,  the  importance,  the  dignity,  the 
prosperity,  the  power,  the  wealth,  the  grandeur  to  which 
that  poor,  desolated  Republic  must  some  day  attain.  He 


260  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

saw  that  all  the  elements  of  empire  lay  unconcealed  and 
unimproved  within  her  embrace.  He  longed  to  go  there  ; 
there  he  wished  to  commence  his  career ;  there  he  wished 
to  wage  the  great  battle  of  life,  which,  he  thought,  would 
be  fought  with  comparative  ease  upon  her  broad  arena, 
under  those  bright  cerulean  skies  which  bend  over  her  like 
a  banner  of  love.  He  felt  toward  that  land  the  same  senti 
ment  which  led  the  poet  Browning  to  exclaim  of  Italy — ' '  Oh, 
woman  country  !  "  He  also  knew  that 

"  Stern  Winter  smiles  on  that  auspicious  clime, 
Her  fields  are  florid  with  perennial  prime  ; 
From  the  bleak  pole  no  winds  inclement  blow, 
Mold  the  round  hail,  or  flake  the  fleecy  snow, 
But  from  the  breezy  deep  the  blest  inhale 
The  fragant  murmurs  of  the  Western  gale." 

Such  was  the  country  he  intended  to  dwell  in,  and,  after 
a  prosperous  and  honorable  career,  he  would  willingly 
breathe  out  his  life  upon  her  soft,  luxurious  soil,  beneath 
the  undulating  shadows  of  the  palm  and  the  date. 

Only  one  portion  of  his  wise  and  w^ell-formed  design  was 
fulfilled.  He  did,  really  and  solemnly,  learn  this  country  ; 
but,  like  Moses  leading  the  hosts  of  Israel  to  the  Land  of 
Promise,  he  was  destined  never  to  reach  that  Canaan  on 
which  he  had  bent  his  hopes  and  set  his  heart.  But  the 
words  of  Shelley  are  true  as  they  are  immortal :  ' '  Death, 
though  a  gate  of  dreariness  and  gloom,  yet  leads  to  azure 
isles  and  beaming  skies,  and  happy  regions  of  eternal 
hope!" 

And,  therefore,  sir,  we  may  hope  that  our  lost  friend  has 
reached  a  better  and  a  happier  land  than  that  which  he 
fixed  upon  for  his  earthly  home  ;  a  clime  where  the  streams 
run  clearer,  and  the  waters  are  sweeter — where  the  skies 
beam  with  unfailing  and  eternal  brightness  !  To  that  only 
happy  land ;  to  that  only  oasis  for  the  weary  soul — we 
trust  thou  hast  fled,  departed  spirit !  So,  good-bye,  com 
rade  !  Farewell,  honest,  upright,  just  and  noble  boy ! 
Farewell,  boon  companion !  Farewell,  tried  and  trusted 
friend  !  Peaceful  and  buoyant  be  thy  pure  spirit  through- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  261 

out  eternity !       May  God' s  love  keep  thee  by  his   side 
forever  ! 


BIOGRAPHY    OF    FATHER    KINO,    THE    FOUNDER    OF    ARIZOXA. 


is  not  a  little  singular  that  though  the  Ameri 
cans  have  had  possession  of  the  Alta  Pimeria  of 
the  Spaniards  since  December,  1853.  and  which 
owes  its  foundation  and  mineral  fame  to  the 
Jesuit  explorer  and  traveler,  Francisco  Kino, 
not  one  correspondent  of  a  California  newspaper, 
writing  from  these  parts,  ever  noticed,  more  than  casually, 
his  name.  Padre  Kino  labored  in  Sonora  as  a  Catholic 
priest,  from  1687  to  1711.  Not  only  is  he  known  in  relig 
ious  chronicles  as  a  light  in  the  Spanisli  Catholic  Church, 
but  he  is  equally  celebrated  in  the  cosmography,  history,  and 
astronomy  of  the  times.  To  him  was  also  owing  the  foun 
dation  and  settlement  of  Lower  California,  and  he  made 
great  discoveries  in  the  southern  frontiers  of  Alta  California, 
and  once  (in  1703)  set  out  from  the  Sonora  Missions  to 
travel  up  by  land  to  Monterey  and  Cape  Mendocino,  before 
a  white  man  ever  trod  the  interior ;  but,  unfortunately,  he 
was  turned  back  by  fatigue,  old  age,  and  sickness,  at  the 
river  Gila. 

Kino  was  born  about  the  year  1641,  at  the  ancient  city  of 
Trent,  in  German  Italy.  He  studied  at  the  University  of 
Ingoldstadt,  in  the  old  electorate  of  Bavaria,  under  the  Jesuit 
Henrico  Shearer,  well  known  in  the  literature  of  the  times 
prior  to  1700.  After  Kino's  primary  studies  were  finished, 
he  entered  the  Catholic  priesthood,  and  became  a  devout  and 
ardent  member  of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  This  wonderfully 
zealous  and  active  fraternity  were  then  penetrating  into 
every  corner  of  the  Christian  and  heathen  world.  Kirio  was 
a  man  made  to  their  hands,  for  not  only  was  he  devout,  but 
he  was  learned,  diligent,  indefatigable ;  with  faculties  keenly 
perceptive,  and  born  to  make  his  mark.  In  reality,  he  was 
a  man  of  wonderful  genius. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  year  1711,  Father  Kino,  or,  as  he 


262 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


was  called,  the  Apostle  of  Sonora,  at  the  age  of  seventy, 
came  to  the  end  of  his  life  in  one  of  the  old  Missions  he 
founded.  An  intelligent  native  of  Sonora,  who  had  trav 
eled  much  in  California  and  his  own  country,  informed  us, 
a  short  time  ago,  that  his  memory  is  still  greatly  revered 
among  the  Christian  Indians  and  the  decent  people  of 
Sonora,  and  that  he  was  buried  at  the  Mission  church  of 
San  Antonio,  in  the  pueblo  of  Aquitoa,  which  is  situated  in 


MISSION   CHURCH   OF  SAN   XAVIER  DEL  BAG. 

a  valley  about  six  miles  from  Altar.  A  monument  is  erected 
in  the  church  to  his  memory.  It  is  a  little  singular  that  no 
correspondent  of  any  California  newspaper  has  ever  noticed 
this  interesting  fact,  even  as  late  as  June,  1860 — though 
several  have  noted  their  stopping-days  at  these  very  places. 
In  Altar  and  Aquitoa  are  said  to  be  still  preserved  many 
manuscripts  of  Kino,  on  the  geography,  languages,  Indians, 
Missions,  and  history  of  Sonora.  The  surveys  of  Bartlett 
and  Emory,  and  those  of  the  Pacific  Railroad,  with  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  263 

accounts  of  late  newspaper  correspondents  from  1853  to 
1860,  entirely  confirm  tlie  faithful  and  far-seeing  histories 
of  the  old  Jesuit  friar. 

Kino  arrived  in  Mexico  in  1680,  when  he  was  about  thir 
ty-nine  years  old,  and  immediately  entered  into  an  animated 
discussion  with  Siguenza,  the  celebrated  Indianologist  and 
astronomer  of  the  City  of  Mexico,  whose  works  have  been 
so  much  commented  upon  by  Humboldt  and  later  writers. 
This  scientific  contest  was  an  analysis  of  the  data  of  the  great 
comet  of  1680,  which  was  then  scaring  the  simple  people  of 
Mexico  to  death.  From  this,  Kino  passed  in  his  zeal  to  the 
Missions  of  Upper  Sonora  and  Alta  Pimeria,  now  known  as 
Arizona,  or  the  Gadsden  Purchase,  where  he  arrived  in 
1687.  Between  that  time  and  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1711, 
he  not  only  built  up  and  established  the  first  Missions  of 
Lower  California,  which  he  visited  by  sea  more  than  once, 
but  he  commenced  the  foundation  of  nearly  every  import 
ant  town,  village,  and  Mission  north  and  east  of  Hermosillo, 
and  as  far  up  as  the  river  Gila.  He  established  great  num 
bers  of  Missions,  and  is  stated  to  have  baptized,  with  his 
own  hands,  not  less  than  forty  thousand  Indians.  His  labors 
as  an  explorer  and  cosmographer  were  wonderful.  It  is 
he  who  first  laid  down  on  the  maps  the  latitudes  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Gila  and  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Cortez.  His 
observations  differ  very  little  from  those  of  Major  Emory, 
in  1856-57. 

Kino  made  five  expeditions  to  the  countries  of  the  Gila 
and  the  Colorado  previous  to  1707,  besides  extensive  and 
fatiguing  journeys  into  every  part  of  Upper  Sonora.  His 
reports  to  the  viceroy  of  Mexico,  the  king's  ministers  in 
Spain,  and  the  generals  and  functionaries  of  the  Jesuits,  still 
exist  in  the  archives  of  Mexico,  Spain,  Rome,  and  even 
France ;  and  are  said,  by  Spanish  writers  prior  to  1800, 
to  have  been  exceedingly  voluminous.  That  to  Madrid 
made  an  immense  volume,  and  laid  the  basis  of  the  Spanish 
colonization  policy  of  the  Pacific  countries  as  high  up  as 
Oregon.  For  in  those  days  the  Jesuits  were  rapidly  ascend 
ing  to  the  zenith ;  their  sun  was  powerful.  The  expulsion 
of  their  order  from  Spanish  America  had  its  great  secret 


OF  TH*^1 

VERSI 


264:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

moving  pivot  in  their  zealous  efforts  to  prevent  the  Spanisli 
civilians  and  the  military  from  making  slaves  of  the  Indian 
neophytes,  to  work  in  the  Planclias  de  Plata  and  rich  mines 
of  Arizona  and  Sonora,  which,  about  1720-30,  set  all  Mexico 
in  a  fury  of  avarice  and  money-getting.  The  Gambusinos 
gained  the  day,  and  from  this  then  distant  quarter  of  the 
world  the  ball  was  rounded,  well  hardened,  and  set  in 
motion  until  the  Jesuits  were  run  out  of  Spanish  America, 
in  1767,  by  judge,  miner,  soldier,  and  gambler — materially 
assisted  by  their  jealous  brethren,  the  Franciscans,  Domini 
cans,  and  Augustins,  and  the  varied  classes  of  the  Mexican 
Fraylayria,  now  having  their  turn  in  I860.—  8.  F.  Bul 
letin,  August  21,  1860. 


A    BEAUTIFUL    COUNTRY. 

SOUTHERN  CALIFORNIA  constitutes  one  vast  garden,  cut 
up  into  a  world  of  Edens.  The  ecstatic  heart  spontaneously 
exults  at  its  glowing  magnificence,  and  glories  at  the  pros 
pects  of  its  future  existence.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  inhab 
itants  of  this  gorgeous  country  repose  in  the  lap  of  content 
ment,  and  that  many  believe  that  "the  spirit  of  God  per 
vades  the  very  atmosphere,"  and  "Zion  on  the  tops  of  the 
mountains  is  nearer  heaven  than  other  parts  of  the  earth  ;" 
this  latter  quotation  being  a  little  Mormon  in  its  general 
tenor,  but  strictly  applicable  to  the  great  majority  of  the 
early  American  settlers  of  Los  Angeles  and  San  Bernardino 
valleys.  Look  at  the  mountain  ranges  of  this  charming 
country,  tumbling  with  delightful  irregularity  one  upon 
another,  and  looking  frowningly  upon  the  detached  spurs 
that  rise  majestically  above  the  highest  points  of  the  mother 
range.  Look  at  their  horny  heads,  enveloped  in  a  dreamy 
haze,  and  at  intervals  sharply  silhouetted  by  a  gorgeous 
sweep  of  sunshine,  and  exhibiting,  in  fantastic  shapes  their 
tilted-up  strata,  ragged  edges,  rugged  sides  and  somber 
brows,  the  whole  standing  out  with  that  phase  of  intoxicat 
ing  sublimity  of  which  the  sense  of  grandeur  and  immensity 
is  the  principal  element.  Look  also  at  the  sparkling  rivers 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  265 

dashing  down  their  brown  flanks,  and  meandering  through 
the  foot-hills  till  lost  in  the  valley  of  emerald,  azure  and  gold 
below.  Eastern  people  know  nothing  of  this  paradise  of  the 
Occident ;  and  our  own  people  lack  information  regarding 
this  portion  of  the  Pacific  territory  of  the  United  States. 
The  eastern  traveler,  who  makes  the  overland  trip  even, 
generally  terminates  bis  tour  at  San  Francisco.  He  may 
visit  the  Geysers,  or  the  Yosemite,  for  pleasure  ;  but  he  finds 
no  time  to  extend  his  journey  into  Southern  California  ;  and 
the  country  of  the  vine,  and  the  orange,  and  the  fig,  and  the 
olive,  and  the  whole  catalogue  of  tropical  productions 
nearly,  find  feAV  chapters  in  the  multiplicity  of  books  that 
have  been  written  upon  the  "Land  of  Gold."  This  is  also 
the  case  with  the  emigrant  and  professional  seeker  after 
occidental  homes.  Infatuated  with  the  glitter  of  the  tales 
of  gold,  the  fortune-hunters  depart  for  the  mines,  little 
dreaming  of  their  precariousness  and  the  bitter  toil  in  store. 
Nine  out  of  every  ten  miners  and  prospectors  eke  out  an 
unhappy  and  unwholesome  life,  with  no  intellectual  recrea 
tive  pastime,  and  finally  terminate  their  existence  in  a  mis 
erable  or  violent  death.— Cor.  S.  F.  Bulletin,  Sept.,  1867. 


GEOLOGY. PROFESSOR    WHITNEY  S    LECTURE. 


ROF.  WHITNEY'S,  lecture,  Thursday  evening, 
before  the  Legislature,  in  the  Assembly  Cham 
ber,  was  quite  long  and  interesting.  He  spoke 
of  the  vast  scope  of  geology — how  it  deals  with 
every  variety  of  organic  and  inorganic  matter, 
and  how  mathematical  and  other  sciences  are  pressed  into 
its  service.  The  ancients  noticed  the  occurrence  of  marine 
shells  on  high  lands,  and  the  elevations  and  depressions  of 
the  earth.  They  wondered  thereat,  and  sought  the  cause. 
This  was  the  first  study  of  geology.  Ovid  seems  to  have 
had  an  elementary  idea  of  the  organic  changes ;  and  at  a 
later  period,  Aristotle  appears  to  have  had  an  intimate  ac- 


266  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

quaintance  with  all  the  changing  cycles  of  the  earth.  Italy 
was  the  cradle  of  geological  study.  The  ancients  stuck 
upon  the  question  whether  fossils  were  originated  by  plas 
tic  force  and  mere  sports  of  nature,  or  whether  they  were 
really  fossils  or  organic  remains.  Bitter  discussions  arose 
"between  the  t\vo  parties  holding  to  these  contrary  views- 
discussions  bitter  as  any  theological  or  political  partisan 
controversies  of  our  own  day.  But  little  further  progress 
was  made  until  a  quite  recent  date,  when  it  was  determined 
that  facts  were  needed  upon  which  to  found  a  firm  geologi 
cal  structure.  This  was  but  fifty  years  ago.  Then  the  Lon 
don  Geological  Society  came  to  this  conclusion  ;  and  the 
advance  from  then  till  now  has  been  really  wonderful.  The 
growth  of  other  sciences  has  also  materially  aided  this— 
astronomy,  for  instance.  It  has  enabled  us  to  ascertain  the 
form,  weight,  &c.,  of  this  planet. 

The  earth  was  in  the  beginning  in  a  state  of  fluidity.  It 
must  have  been  softened  by  heat.  As  you  go  down  toward 
its  center  the  temperature  rises,  and  when  you  reach  a  suf 
ficient  depth  you  meet  hot  water.  As  a  general  average 
rule,  the  temperature  increases  one  degree  Fahrenheit  to 
every  sixty  feet  as  you  descend  into  the  earth.  The  great 
est  depth  yet  attained  by  miners  in  the  earth  is  from  2,000 
to  2,500  feet  below  the  surface.  The  deepest  artesian  well 
in  the  world  is  2,300  feet  deep,  when  hot  water  was  met. 
This  plainly  shows  that  the  source  of  heat  lies  in  the  center 
of  the  earth.  Volcanoes  and  earthquakes  also  prove  this, 
the  former  being  the  vents  for  gases  generated  by  interior 
heat. 

For  the  past  five  or  six  years  volcanoes  and  earthquakes 
have  attracted  much  attention  among  geologists.  California 
is  not  in  the  region  of  heavy  shocks,  although  in  building 
houses  it  would  be  well  to  make  them  substantial  enough 
not  to  fall  down  before  they  are  finished.  Earthquakes 
always  have  a  wave-like  motion.  Throw  a  pebble  into  a 
pond,  and  a  wavy,  gradually  increasing  circle  is  formed. 
The  motion  imparted  to  the  water,  although  it  appears  to  be 
lateral,  is  really  perpendicular.  The  great  Lisbon  earth 
quake  was  precisely  like  one  of  these  circle-waves.  Its  in- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  267 

fluence  was  felt  not  only  in  Northern  Europe,  "but  in  the 
Antilles  and  North  America — extending  over  one-thirteenth 
of  the  earth's  surface,  and  traveling  at  the  rate  of  1,650  feet 
per  second.  Prior  to  the  year  1300,  the  number  of  recorded 
earthquakes  experienced  in  the  world  was  387.  From  that 
time  until  1800,  there  were  2,814  ;  from  then  until  1850, 
there  were  3,840  ;  and  from  1850  until  1858,  there  were  no 
less  than  4, 620 !  This,  however,  must  not  be  supposed  to 
be  the  real— only  the  recorded  increase.  From  the  record 
of  Dr.  Trask,  California  averages  from  three  to  fourteen 
earthquakes  per  annum.  No  human  life,  however,  has 
ever  thus  been  destroyed,  except  in  one  instance  in  Califor 
nia,  and  that  was  during  the  earthquake  that  in  1812  threw 
down  the  church  of  the  Mission  of  San  Luis  Obispo,  and 
killed  thirty  or  forty  persons.  The  Sierras  at  a  recent  geo 
logical  period  were  formed  by  upheaval ;  they  are  part  of 
that  great  chain  of  volcanic  mountains  stretching  from  Cape 
Horn  to  Behring's  Straits,  which  furnishes  the  most  extra 
ordinary  displays  of  the  workings  of  the  vast  central  fires 
of  the  earth.  Chile,  Bolivia,  Peru,  Central  America,  and 
Mexico,  are  the  present  fields  of  active  volcanic  agency.  In 
Chile,  there  are  no  less  than  thirty  vents  vomiting  forth  flame 
and  cinders  and  lava.  Here  the  power  is  dormant,  the  tre 
mendous  convulsions  which  have  torn  up  California  took 
place  at  the  close  of  the  tertiary  epoch,  before  the  race  of 
man  appeared  upon  the  scene.  Then  it  was  that  the  aurif 
erous  detritus  in  the  river  beds  was  covered  over  with  pum 
ice,  the  bones  of  the  elephant,  mastodon,  and— the  original 
Digger. 

When  the  great  mass  of  heated  matter  was  cooling,  by 
contraction  the  smooth  surface  became  wrinkled,  and  thus 
the  mountains  and  valleys  were  formed.  It  is  by  the  reac 
tion  of  the  molten  interior  of  the  earth  against  the  colder 
crust  that  earthquakes  are  caused,  'it  has  been  a  matter  of 
much  inquiry  whether  the  same  effects  were  produced  upon 
this  interior  fluid  mass  as  upon  the  ocean  by  the  moon— 
whether  there  were  tidal  changes.  And  it  has  been  demon 
strated  by  recorded  experience  that  there  are  very  many 
more  earthquakes  occurring  at  the  moon' s  full,  than  at  her 


268  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

quarter.  They  are  also  more  frequent  when  she  is  closest  to 
the  earth.  The  moon' s  surface  is  a  remarkable  volcanic  one. 
Looking  through  a  powerful  telescope  you  will  see  what  are 
called  the  ring  mountains,  some  of  which  are  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  around.  These  are  immense  shells — craters 
of  great  depth.  In  some  of  these  craters  you  will  see  small 
mountains  rising  up  in  the  center.  The  moon' s  mountains 
are,  some  of  them,  much  loftier  than  any  upon  the  earth' s 
surface,  yet  the  earth  has  four  times  a  larger  diameter  than 
her  satellite.  The  moon  has  evidently  cooled  down  from  a 
state  of  igneous  fluidity.  The  greatest  analogy  exists  be 
tween  her  extinct  volcanic  craters  and  Mauna  Loa  (Sand 
wich  Islands),  now  so  active.  But  nowhere  upon  earth, 
save  perhaps  in  Iceland,  are  scenes  of  such  inanimate,  hope 
less  desolation  as  upon  the  moon' s  surface.  It  is  completely 
"played  out."  Never  again  will  volcanic  fires  burn  there. 
They  are  exhausted.  There  does  not  appear  to  be  a  drop 
of  water  in  the  moon.  And  without  these  two  agencies  it 
must  forever  be  the  same  as  now.  Nor  can  we  imagine  any 
class  of  life  that  can  be  living  there. 

Fire  and  water  are  the  great  laborers  who  work  the  eter 
nal  changes.  The  internal  fires  throw  up  mountains.  The 
mountain  streams  slowly,  patiently,  but  surely  carry  them 
down  again  through  the  great  rivers  to  the  ocean,  upon 
whose  bottom  the  sedimentary  deposits  rest  until  upheaved 
again,  to  be  again  torn  down.  Thus  the  cycles  of  changes 
march  on,  and  the  various  stratifications  are  formed — for 
ever  at  work  ;  destruction  here,  re-formation  there,  and  vice 
versa.  By  earthquakes  the  astonishing  mile-deep  gorges 
of  the  Colorado  were  formed,  and  other  peculiar  features  of 
the  earth. 

There  are  three  orders  of  sandstones,  which  are  those  of 
the  beginning,  the  middle,  and  the  end.  It  is  in  these  that 
the  fossilized  remains  of  organic  life  are  found,  and  their 
development  of  the  regular  order  of  beings  is  astonishing. 
In  the  sandstone  of  Pennsylvania  are  to  be  found  the  re 
mains  of  gigantic  frogs,  and  the  imprint  of  feet  of  enormous 
birds.  The  frogs  of  that  day  fulfilled  the  fable  of  swelling 
to  the  size  of  an  ox.  In  another  order  of  sandstone  is  found 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-rOOK.  269 

the  stage  of  conglomerate  life,  where  bird,  fish,  and  reptile 
were  in  one.  Geology  lias  shown  that  life  had  a  beginning 
—that  there  was  a  moment  in  the  processes  of  creation  when 
the  fiat  went  forth,  "Let  there  be  life."  But  for  geology 
there  would  have  been  no  evidence  but  that  life  had  always 
been  the  same  as  now.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that  life 
lias  been  progressive  from  the  azoic  epoch  until  now — from 
the  lowest  zoophyte  to  the  highest  order  of  man.  The  sand 
stones  have  revealed  this.  First  there  were  the  mollusca, 
then  the  fish,  then  half  fish  and  reptile,  then  the  huge  fish, 
then  the  mammalia.  From  the  opossum  it  runs  up  to  the 
highest  order  of  mammals.  Here  we  have  an  animal  part 
horse,  part  camel,  part  giraffe,  part  hippopotamus.  Thus 
the  order  of  progression  runs  np  to  man,  the  highest  of  all. 
As  in  life,  a  man  is  born,  reaches  his  meridian,  and  dies  ; 
so  with  species  and  genera  ;  otherwise  we  can  not  account 
for  their  extinction. 

For  the  past  two  years  the  attention  of  the  geological 
world  has  been  excited  by  discoveries  in  Egypt  by  French 
and  German  explorers.  Works  of  art  had  been  exhumed, 
that  had  been  buried  over  5,000  years,  showing  that  at  that 
time  a  high  stage  of  civilization  had  been  attained  by  man. 
Under  the  auspices  of  the  London  Geological  Society,  ex 
perimental  explorations  have  been  carried  on  in  the  Nile 
Valley  that  have  led  to  startling  discoveries.  Upon  the 
banks  of  the  Nile  it  was  found  that  deposits  were  made 
some  4£  inches  deep,  in  one  thousand  years.  Borings  were 
commenced,  in  the  course  of  which  great  quantities  of  works 
of  art  were  found  at  a  great  depth  ;  and  it  was  clearly  shown 
by  the  layers,  that  they  had  been  there  over  10,000  years. 
These  showed,  too,  that  at  that  time  civilization  had  won 
derfully  advanced  ;  showing,  too,  that  the  10,000  years  was 
as  nothing  compared  with  the  back  date  of  the  early  stages 
of  man' s  existence. 

In  Europe,  which  has  been  more  explored  than  any  coun 
try  by  geologists,  the  ages  of  man  upon  earth  are  divided 
into  three — the  stone,  the  bronze,  and  the  iron  ages.  These 
indicate  the  growth  of  civilization.  It  has  been  shown  that 
man  was  contemporaneous  with  the  mastodon.  In  1858, 


2TO  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

Falconer  found  in  a  cave  in  Devonshire,  England,  instru 
ments  of  labor,  with  bones  of  extinct  animals.  Ten  years 
before  that,  Buclie  had  found,  near  Amiens,  in  France, 
human  bones  in  the  same  diluvium  stratum  in  which  were 
found  the  bones  of  the  mastodon.  He  wrote  a  book  upon  the 
subject,  .which,  to  the  shame  of  science  be  it  said,  attract 
ed  no  attention  until  after  Falconer's  discovery.  In  1859, 
however,  it  attracted  the  attention  it  deserved.  Geologists 
went  to  the  spot  in  France  indicated,  and  dug  up,  from  a 
layer  that  had  never  been  disturbed,  the  bones  of  man, 
mammoth,  rhinoceros,  and  some  animals  that  had  been  ex 
tinct  since  the  commencement  of  the  historical  epoch.  The 
English  Channel  was  not  then  in  existence,  as  in  those  times 
they  could  walk  across  from  England  into  France.  Yet 
1,900  years  ago  the  English  Channel  was  much  as  it  now  is. 
It  was  then  crossed  by  Julius  Csesar  in  vessels.  What  an 
immensity  of  time  then  must  have  transpired  since  the 
waters  first  commenced  to  wash  between  the  two  countries  ! 
How  long  a  time  must  have  elapsed  since  the  bones  recently 
found  in  France  and  Devonshire  (indicating  this  great  age), 
were  clothed  with  flesh  and  muscles  !  Ten  thousand  years 
would  be  a  small  fraction  of  it !—  S.  F.  Bulletin. 


THE       AXXIVERSARY       OF       THE       BEAR       FLAG. 

From  the  Alta  Californian,  June  15,  1866. 

i 

iWENTY  years  ago,  the  Bear  Flag  was  hoisted 
in  Sonoma  as  a  symbol  of  revolt  against  Mexico, 
and  on  the  same  day  a  proclamation  was  issued 
by  William  B.  Ide,  commander  of  the  party,  in 
which  he  gave  the  reasons  of  the  movement,  and 
declared  that  the  Americans  in  the  territory  had 
been  "threatened  by  proclamation  from  the  chief  officer  of 
the  aforesaid  military  despotism  (the  Government  of  Califor 
nia),  with  extermination  if  they  would  not  depart  out  of  the 
country,  leaving  all  their  property,  arms,  and  beasts  of  bur 
den."  This  was  a  great  mistake  on  the  part  of  Ide  and  his 
friends.  The  authorities  of  California  had  issued  no  such  proc- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  2T1 

larnation,  nor  was  sucli  a  matter  thought  of.  At  this  very  time 
the  leading  native  Californians,  as  a  class,  under  the  advice 
and  influence  of  Thomas  0.  Larkin,  with  the  co-operation 
of  Leese,  Robinson,  Stearns,  arid  Hill,  were  inclined  to  favor 
annexation  to  the  United  States.     Numerous  consultations 
had  been  held  with  high  officers  on  the  subject,  and  a  con 
vention  had  been  called  to   take   some    decisive    action. 
Every  thing  appeared  to  indicate  the  success  of  Larkin' s 
negotiations,  when  Fremont  arrived,  insulted  and  defied  the 
authorities,  alarmed  and  irritated  the  Americans  in  the  Sacra 
mento  Valley,  and  thus  led  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Bear  Flag 
party,  which  very  much  increased  the  difficulty  of  the  Amer 
ican  conquest.     Fremont  has  been  called  the  conqueror  of 
California,  but  we  are  satisfied  that  a  careful  examination  of 
the  facts  will  show  that  his  imprudence  greatly  increased 
the  bitterness  of  the  native  Californians  against  the  Ameri 
cans,  as  his  disobedience  to  his  superiors  afterward  led  to 
his  dismissal  from  the  army.    We  publish  a  couple  of  docu 
ments  which  relate  to  Fremont's  conduct,  and  have  never 
been  in  print  hitherto.    The  first  is  a  letter  from  Fremont  to 
Dolores  Pacheco,  Alcalde  of  San  Jose,  in  which  he  refuses 
to  appear  before  the  authorities  of  the  country  to  answer  a 
claim  to  the  ownership  of  some  horses  in  his  possession,  and 
he  further  says  the   claimant   ought  to  consider  himself 
lucky  for  being  allowed  to  leave  the  American  camp  with 
out  a  horsewhipping.      Such   language  from   an  alien  is 
beyond  all  the  bounds  of  propriety,  and  we  can  not  be 
astonished  when  we  see   that,   very  soon  afterward,   Don 
Manuel  Castro,  the  Prefect  of  San  Jose,   ordered  him  to 
leave  the  territory.     Instead  of  complying,  Fremont  forti 
fied  himself,  and  declared  that  he  would  fight  to  the  last, 
and  would  give  no   quarter.      He   took  no  advice   from 
Larkin,  the  accredited  and  confidential  agent  of  the  Govern 
ment,  and  his  tone  toward  the  natives  was  so  harsh  that 
there  was  no  opportunity  for  compromise.     The  indirect  re 
sult  of  his  conduct  was  the  Bear  Flag  insurrection,  which 
held  power  in  Sonoma  from  the  15th  of  June  to  the  llth  of 
July.     The  movement  was  so  bold,  its  military  operations 
were  so  well  managed,  the  individual  conduct  and  character 


272  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

of  its  members  were  so  exemplary,  their  services  in  Hie  war 
were  so  valuable,  and  their  flag  was  superseded  so  soon  by 
the  Stars  and  Stripes,  that  the  serious  error  of  judgment 
committed  in  the  movement,  and  its  injurious  influences  on 
the  political  negotiations  then  in  progress,  have  been  over 
looked  by  nearly  all  who  have  written  about  the  history  of 
the  country. 

THE    BEGINNING    OF    THE    WAR    IN    CALIFORNIA    IN     1846. 

BELOW  we  publish  a  couple  of  documents,  never  before 
in  print,  relating  to  the  beginning  of  the  troubles  which  led 
to  the  Bear  Flag  insurrection  in  1846  : — 

FREMONT   TO    DOLORES    P-CIIKCO. 

CAMP  NEAR  ROAD  TO  SANTA  CRUZ, 
February  21,  1846. 

SIR  :  I  received  your  communication  of  the  20th,  inform 
ing  me  that  a  complaint  had  been  lodged  against  me  in  your 
office  for  refusing  to  deliver  up  certain  animals  of  my  band, 
which  are  claimed  as  having  been  stolen  from  this  vicinity 
about  two  montlis  since  ;  and  that  the  plaintiff  further  com 
plains  of  having  been  insulted  in  my  camp. 

It  can  be  proven  on  oath  by  thirty  men  here  present,  that 
the  animal  pointed  out  by  the  plaintiff  has  been  brought  in 
my  band  from  the  United  States  of  North  America.  The 
insult  of  which  he  complains,  and  which  was  authorized  by 
myself,  consisted  in  his  being  ordered  immediately  to  leave 
the  camp.  After  having  been  detected  in  endeavoring  to 
obtain  animals  under  false  pretenses,  he  should  have  been 
well  satisfied  to  escape  without  a  severe  horsewhipping. 

There  are  four  animals  in  my  band  which  were  bartered 
from  the  Tulare  Indians  by  a  division  of  my  part}7  which 
descended  the  San  Joaquin  Valley.  I  was  not  there  present, 
and  if  any  more  legal  owners  present  themselves,  these 
shall  be  immediately  delivered  upon  proving  property.  It 
may  save  some  trouble  to  inform  you  that,  with  this  excep 
tion,  all  the  animals  in  my  band  have  been  purchased  and 
paid  for.  Any  further  communications  on  this  subject  will 
not,  therefore,  receive  attention.  You  will  readily  under- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  273 

stand  that  my  duties  will  not  permit  me  to  appear  before 
the  magistrates  of  your  towns  on  the  complaint  of  every 
straggling  vagabond  who  may  chance  to  visit  my  camp. 
You  inform  me  that  unless  satisfaction  be  immediately 
made  by  the  delivery  of  the  animals  in  question,  the  com 
plaint  will  be  forwarded  to  the  Governor.  I  would  beg 
you  at  the  same  time  to  inclose  to  his  Excellency  a  copy  of 
this  note. 

I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

J.  C.  FREMONT,  U.  S.  Army. 
To  SB.  DON  DOLORES  PACHECO  (Alcalde  of  San  Jose). 


MANUEL    CASTRO   TO    FREMONT — TRANSLATION. 

PREFECTURE  OF  THE  SECOND  DISTRICT, 

MONTEREY,  March  5,  1846. 

I  have  learned  with  much  dissatisfaction  that,  in  contempt 
>f  the  laws  and  authorities  of  the  Mexican  Republic,  you 
ive  entered  the  towns  of  the  district  under  my  charge, 
rith  an  armed  force,  which  the  Government  of  your  nation 
lust  have  placed  under  your  command  for  the  sole  purpose 
>f  examining  its  own  territory.     That  this  Prefecture  orders 
immediately  on  the  receipt  of  this  communication,  to 
iturn  with  your  party  beyond  the  limits  of  this  department, 
rith   the  understanding    that  if  you  do  not  comply,  this 
'refecture  will  take  the  measures  necessary  to  compel  you 
respect  this  determination.     God  and  Liberty. 

MANL.  CASTRO. 
SENOR  CAPTAIN  DON  J.  C.  FREMONT. 

18 


274  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


EARTHQUAKES    IX    CALIFORNIA    PRIOR   TO     1864. 


iHE  records  of  the  different  missions  in  Califor 
nia,  from  the  time  of  the  founding  of  the  first 
one  in  1769  down  to  the  year  1800,  make  no 
mention  of  earthquakes,  from  which  we  may 
reasonably  infer  that  during  that  time — a  period 
of  thirty-one  years — no  serious  phenomena  of 
that  kind  occurred.  In  the  latter  year  the  first  evidence  of 
an  earthquake  shock  is  recorded  as  having  occurred  in  San 
Juan  Bautista  on  the  llth  of  October,  and  on  the  18th  of 
the  same  month  another  shock  is  recorded  as  occurring  at 
supper-time,  which  was  folloAved  by  still  another  at  eleven 
o'clock  the  same  night.  The  next  record  is  found  in  the 
annals  of  the  Presidio  at  San  Francisco,  where  twenty-one 
shocks  of  earthquake  are  mentioned  as  occurring  between 
the  21st  of  June  and  the  17th  of  July,  1808.  From  this 
time  until  1812,  nothing  more  is  said  of  earthquakes  in  the 
records,  nor  has  it  been  possible  to  obtain  information 
from  old  residents  showing  that  any  shocks  worthy  of 
mention  were  felt.  It  was  in  the  month  of  September  of 
that  year  (1812)  that  the  great  California  earthquake  oc 
curred,  and  the  only  one  that  is  known  to  have  resulted  in 
loss  of  life.  This  earthquake  destroyed  the  mission  of  San 
Juan  Capistrano,  in  Los  Angeles  County,  and  the  mission 
of  Ptirissima  (Viejo),  in  Santa  Barbara  County,  the  two 
missions  being  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles  apart,  and 
caused  loss  of  life.  The  history  of  the  event,  as  related  by 
persons  who  witnessed  it,  is  as  follows  :— 

The  day  was  clear  and  uncommonly  warm  ;  it  being 
Sunday,  the  people  had  assembled  at  San  Juan  Capistrano 
for  evening  service.  About  half  an  hour  after  the  opening 
of  service,  an  unusual  loud,  but  distant  rushing  sound  was 
heard  in  the  atmosphere  to  the  east  and  also  over  the 
water,  which  resembled  the  sound  of  strong  wind  ;  but  as 
it  approached,  no  perceptible  breeze  accompanied  it.  The 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  275 

sea  was  smooth  and  the  air  was  calm.  So  distinct  and 
loud  was  this  atmospheric  sound  that  several  left  the  build 
ing  attracted  "by  its  noise. 

Immediately  following  the  sound,  the  first  and  heaviest 
shock  of  the  earthquake  occurred,  which  was  sufficiently 
severe  to  prostrate  the  mission  church  of  San  Capistrano 
almost  in  a  body,  burying  in  its  ruins  the  most  of  those 
who  remained  behind,  after  the  first  indication  of  its  ap 
proach  was  heard.  The  shock  was  very  sudden  and  al 
most  without  warning,  save  from  the  rushing  sound  above 
noted,  and  to  the  severity  of  the  first  shock  at  that  moment 
is  to  be  attributed  the  loss  of  life  that  followed. . 

The  number  reported  to  have  been  killed  outright  is 
variously  estimated  from  thirty  to  forty -five  (the  largest 
number  of  persons  agree  on  the  smallest  number  of  deaths 
given),  but  in  the  absence  of  records  such  statements 
should  be  received  with  many  grains  of  allowance,  where 
memory  alone  is  the  only  means  left,  and  the  term  of  forty- 
three  years  has  elapsed  before  the  period  at  which  this  ac 
count  was  placed  on  paper.  A  considerable  number  are 
reported  to  have  been  badly  injured.  There  is  a  universal 
agreement  on  this  point  with  those  from  whom  these  facts 
were  derived,  viz.  :  that  the  first  shock  threw  down  the 
entire  building,  and  that  a  large  number  of  persons  were 
in  it  at  that  moment,  and  under  the  circumstances  it  would 
be  most  singular  if  no  deaths  were  caused  by  such  an 
event. 

The  motion  of  the  earth  is  described  as  having  lifted 
vertically,  attended  by  a  rotary  movement.  No  undulato- 
ry  motion  is  described  by  any  one.  Dizziness  and  nausea 
seized  almost  every  person  in  the  vicinity.  A  heavy,  loud, 
deep  rumbling  accompanied  the  successive  shocks  that 
followed,  which  were  five  in  number,  all  having  the  motion 
above  described,  though  comparatively  light  in  their  effects 
to  the  first.  The  sounds  attending  the  phenomena  came 
apparently  from  the  south  and  east. 

In  the  valley  of  San  Inez,  to  the  south  and  west  of  Santa 
Barbara,  the  church  now  known  as  the  ''Mission  Viejo'1 
(La  Purissima),  was  also  completely  destroyed.  At  this 


276  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

locality  there  were  also  a  number  of  lives  lost,  but  what 
number  is  as  yet  very  uncertain. 

The  shock  which  destroyed  this  building  occurred  about 
one  hour  after  the  former,  and  the  greater  portion  of  the 
inhabitants  had  left  the  building  but  a  few  minutes  before 
it  fell,  service  having  closed.  The  first  shock  felt  here 
prostrated  the  building,  as'  in  the  preceding  case. 

A  Spanish  ship,  which  lay  at  anchor  off  San  Buenaven 
tura,  thirty-eight  miles  from  Santa  Barbara,  was  much  in 
jured  by  the  shock,  and  leaked  to  that  extent  that  it 
became  necessary  to  beach  her  and  remove  most  of  her 
cargo. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact,  and  at  the  same  time  somewhat 
remarkable,  that  the  time  which  elapsed  between  the  ad 
vent  of  the  shocks  at  Capistrano  and  San  Inez  is  widely 
variant  from  what  we  should  look  for,  when  the  distance 
apart  and  velocity  of  motion  in  earthquakes  are  taken  into 
consideration. 

The  effect  of  this  earthquake  on  the  sea  in  the  bay  of 
Santa  Barbara  is  described  as  follows:  "The  sea  was  ob 
served  to  recede  from  the  shore  daring  the  continuance  of 
the  shocks,  and  left  the  latter  dry  for  a  considerable 
distance,  when  it  returned  in  five  or  six  heavy  rollers, 
which  overflowed  the  plain  on  which  Santa  Barbara  is 
built.  The  inhabitants  saw  the  recession  of  the  sea,  and 
being  aware  of  the  danger  on  its  return,  fled  to  the  adjoin 
ing  hills  near  the  town  to  escape  the  probable  deluge.  The 
sea  on  its  return  flowed  inland  a  little  more  than  half  a 
mile,  and  reached  the  lower  part  of  the  town,  doing  but 
little  damage,  destroying  only  three  small  adobe  build 
ings." 

In  the  month  of  May  preceding  this  great  earthquake  the 
southern  part  of  the  State  was  frequently  agitated  by  shocks 
of  greater  or  less  severity,  which  continued  to  occur  almost 
daily  through  the  whole  period  from  that  time  till  the  great 
shock  in  September.  As  many  as  thirty  shocks  are  alleged 
to  have  been  felt  in  a  single  day,  and  they  became  so  fre 
quent  as  to  alarm  the  inhabitants  of  Santa  Barbara  County, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  277 

who  abandoned  their  houses  and  lived  under  trees  and 
slept  out  of  doors. 

With  regard  to  the  destruction  of  the  Mission  buildings 
by  the  great  earthquake  above  recorded,  it  furnishes  but 
a  poor  guide  in  estimating  the  force  of  the  shocks,  for  the 
buildings  of  that  period  were  probably  very  slimly  con 
structed  compared  with  similar  structures  at  the  present, 
although  the  church  at  San  Juan  Capistrano  is  stated  to 
have  been  "a  well  built  affair  of  stone  and  cement."  The 
destruction  of  the  church  appears  to  have  been  due  mainly 
to  the  falling  of  the  cupola  or  steeple. 

From  1812  to  1850  the  archives  of  the  State  are  silent  on 
the  subject  of  earthquakes,  and  although  shocks  were  doubt 
less  felt  as  frequently  as  since  that  time,  yet  they  were  so 
slight  as  to  be  deemed  unworthy  of  public  record. 

In  the  year  1850  there  were  five  shocks,  in  the  State, 
of  which  three  were  felt  in  this  city. 

In  1851  there  was  six  shocks,  three  of  which  were  felt 
in  San  Francisco,  and  the  first  of  which,  occurring  on  the 
15th  of  May,  was  quite  severe,  breaking  window  glass  and 
severely  shaking  buildings.  The  same  day  there  was  was 
an  eruption  of  Mauna  Loa,  in  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

In  1852  there  was  a  series  of  heavy  shocks  in  the  lower 
part  of  the  State,  commencing  on  the  26th  of  November, 
and  lasting  several  days.  There  were,  also,  repeated  shocks 
all  through  the  month  of  December,  in  the  southern  arid 
middle  portions  of  the  State. 

In  1853  there  was  fifteen  shocks  in  the  State,  of  which 
four  were  felt  in  this  city,  viz.  :  January  2d,  March  1st, 
November  21st  and  December  llth.  On  the  25th  of 
October  of  the  same  year  three  heavy  shocks  were  felt 
at  Humboldt  Bay. 

In  1854  there  were  twelve  shocks  in  the  State,  of  which 
two  were  felt  in  this  city — the  first  on  the  2d  of  March 
and  the  second  on  the  26th  of  October.  The  heaviest  shock 
of  this  year  was  felt  at  Santa  Barbara,  May  31st,  which  was 
accompanied  by  heavy  rumbling  and  loud  noise,  but  did 
no  damage. 


278  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

In  1855  there  were  eleven  shocks,  only  two  of  which 
were  felt  in  this  city. 

In  1856  there  were  fifteen  shocks  in  the  State,  of  which 
seven  were  felt  in  San  Francisco.  The  heaviest  was  on 
February  15th,  at  five  and  a  half  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and 
continued  eight  seconds.  The  first  and  principal  shock  was 
followed  by  another,  scarely  perceptible.  Considerable 
damage  was  done,  and  the  upper  part  of  a  poorly  con 
structed  building  on  Battery  Street  was  thrown  down.  The 
shock  was  preceded  by  a  heavy  rumbling  noise,  and  the 
motion  was  from  northwest  to  southeast. 

1857  there  were  seventeen  shocks  in  the  State,  six  of 
which  were  felt  in  this  city.  The  most  important  was  the 
shock,  or  series  of  shocks,  that  commenced  about  half- past 
eleven  o'clock  on  the  night  of  January  8th,  and  continued 
until  a  little  past  eight  o'clock  the  following  morning — there 
being  six  shocks  during  the  interval.  No  serious  damage 
was  done.  The  next  in  importance  occurred  on  the  2d  of 
September,  and  was  felt  over  an  extent  of  two  hundred 
miles.  Of  the  seventeen  shocks  during  the  year,  ten 
occurred  in  the  autumn  and  winter,  and  seven  in  the  spring 
and  summer. 

In  1858  there  were  eight  shocks  in  the  State,  of  which  five 
were  felt  in  this  city.  They  were  all  comparatively  light, 
except  the  one  felt  here  a  little  past  midnight  of  the  26th  of 
November.  The  shock  was  confined  to  an  area  of  ten  or 
twelve  miles  from  the  city,  and  was  productive  of  no  seri 
ous  damage,  although  it  awoke  most  of  our  citizens  from 
their  slumbers  and  caused  them  to  spend  a  sleepless 
night. 

In  1859  the  shocks  numbered  eight  altogether,  five  of 
which  were  felt  in  this  city.  None  of  them  were  heavy  or 
worthy  of  particular  mention. 

1860  only  three  shocks  were  felt  throughout  the  State. 
San  Francisco  was  favored  with  only  one,  which  occurred 
on  the  morning  of  the  21st  of  December,  and  manifested 
itself  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  light  vibrations  or  quivers, 
that  continued  through  a  period  of  half  an  hour. 

In  1861  there  was  only  one  earthquake  in  California,  and 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  279 

this  occurred  in  San  Francisco,  at  a  quarter  past  eleven  of 
the  4th  of  July.  It  was  called  a  severe  shock,  but  did  no 
damage. 

In  1862  only  two  shocks  are  recorded  in  the  State,  both 
of  which  were  felt  in  this  city,  and  are  designated  as  "  smart 
shocks." 

In  1863  there  were  five  shocks,  of  which  four  were  felt 
in  this  city — one  each  in  the  months  of  June,  July,  August, 
and  December.  The  last  was  the  heaviest ;  but  none  of 
them  were  productive  of  any  damage. 

It  appears  from  the  above  record  that  the  number  of 
earthquakes  felt  in  the  State  from  1850  to  the  close  of  1863 
was  one  hundred  and  ten.  The  greatest  number  occurred 
in  the  month  of  January,  and  the  least  in  the  months  of 
February  and  April ;  thirty-four  occurred  in  the  winter 
months,  twenty-three  in  the  summer  months,  twenty-four 
in  the  spring  months,  and  twenty-nine  in  the  autumn 
months.  The  number  of  shocks  between  the  autumnal  and 
vernal  equinoxes  was  sixty-four,  between  the  vernal  and 
autumnal  equinoxes  fifty-two. — Dr.  Trash. 


ORIGIN    OF     THE    NAMES     OP     THE     DAYS     OF     THE     WEEK. 


OST  persons  are  familiar  with  the  facts  in  refer 
ence  to  the  names  of  the  days  of  the  week, 
and  yet  there  may  be  some  who  are  riot  able 
to  account  for  the  order  in  which  they  occur. 

The  division  of  time  into  weeks  was  proba 
bly  first  made  by  the  Chaldeans ;  and  the  general  order, 
as  adopted  by  this  ancient  people,  has  existed  to  the 
present  time. 

According  to  the  Ptolemaic  system,  there  are  seven  plan 
ets  which  revolve  around  the  earth  in  the  following  order  of 
distances,  beginning  at  the  most  remote :    Saturn,  Jupiter, 
Mars,  Sun,  Venus,.  Mercury,  Moon. 
The  day  being  divided  into  twenty -four  hours,  and  each 


280  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

hour,  by  turns,  being  devoted  in  theory  to  one  or  another, 
in  regular  order,  of  the  divinities  which  ruled  the  planets, 
the  present  order  of  days  was  necessary,  in  order  to  keep 
up  an  uninterrupted  succession. 

Saturn,  or  Saturday,  was  the  first  day  of  the  week,  the 
first  hour  of  which  was  also  devoted  to  Saturn,  the  second 
hour  to  Jupiter,  the  third  to  Mars,  the  fourth  to  Sun,  the 
fifth  to  Venus,  the  sixth  to  Mercury,  and  the  seventh  to 
Moon.  The  eighth  was  in  regular  succession  devoted  to  Sa 
turn,  so  also  the  fifteenth  and  twenty -second  ;  the  twenty - 
third  to  Jupiter,  the  twenty -fourth  to  Mars  ;  and  the  first 
hour  of  the  second  day  to  Sun — hence  the  day  is  called 
Sunday.  By  continuing  the  same  order,  Sun  answers  to 
the  eighth,  fifteenth  and  twenty- second  ;  the  twenty -third 
is  Venus,  the  twenty-fourth  Mercury,  and  the  first  hour  of 
the  third  is  Moon,  hence  Moonday  or  Monday. 

Moon  answers  to  the  eighth,  fifteenth  or  twenty-second 
hours  ;  the  twenty-third  to  Saturn  ;  the  twenty-fourth  to 
Jupiter  ;  the  first  hour  of  the  fourth  day  is  Mars— Saxon, 
Tuisco  or  Tig,  hence  Tuesday. 

The  first  hour  of  the  fifth  day,  by  the  same  succession, 
will  be  Mercury — Saxon,  Wodeno,  hence  Wednesday.  The 
order  gives  the  first  hour  of  the  sixth  day  to  Jupiter,  the 
Saxon  Thor,  hence  Thursday.  Friday,  likewise,  gives  its 
first  hour  to  Venus — Saxon,.  Frigge. 

The  result  may  be  conveniently  grouped  in  the  following 
tabular  form : — 

Saturn 1 8 15 22 Jupiter Mars 24 

Sun 1 8 15 22 Venus Mercury 24 

Moon 1 8 15 22 Saturn Jupiter 24 

Mars 1 8 15 22 Sun, Venus 24 

Mercury  . .  1 8 15 22 Moon Saturn 24 

Jupiter 1 8 15 22 Mars Sun 24 

Venus 1 8 15 22 Mercury. .  ..Moon 24 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  281 

THE    MINING    JURY    DINNER. 

JFTER  the  trial  of  the  late  Potosi  vs.  Bajazette 
and  Golden  Era  mining  suit,  the  Potosi  Com 
pany,  in  whose  favor  the  jury  brought  in  a  ver 
dict,  gave  a  grand  dinner  at  Barnum's  Hotel. 
C  Street,  to  the  jury  and  counsel.  As  there 
has  been  much  talk  about  this  dinner,  and  as  the  curiosity 
of  the  public  is  still  much  excited  on  the  subject,  we  have 
taken  the  pains  to  procure  the  bill  of  fare  on  the  occasion, 
which  we  here  present  to  our  readers  : — 

MINING    JURY    DINNER. — BILL    OP    FARE. 

Primary — SOUPS. 
Ox-yd  and  Dry-bone. 
Secondary — ROASTS. 

Ophir  Horse.  Porphyry. 

Hornblende.  Greenston. 

Granite.  Serpentine. 

Tertiary — BOILED. 

Feldspar.  Amygdaloid. 

Casing,  caper  sauce.  Dumps. 

Corned  feeders  and  cabbaged  waste  rock. 

Post-  Tertiary — ENTREES. 

Vein  matter  a  la  mode. 

Black  dyke  scrambled. 

Black  dyke  deviled,  with  injunction  sauce. 

Stopes,  stewed  with  calcareous  tufa. 

Traverse  section,  with  cleavage  jelly. 

Breast  Bajazette,  family  style. 

Seventh  level  hash. 

Poached  silex  and  pickled  adits. 

Stratifications,  Mexican  style. 

Cuts  breaded,  and  Black  Dyke  in  onions. 

Eastern  wall  Curry. 

Auriferous  conglomerate,  intercolated. 

Lateral  heaves,  in  casing. 

, 


282  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Clay  seams,  in  rebuttal. 

Friable  nodules,  in  borax. 

Hot  Bajazette  cakes,  with  Golden  Era  sirup. 

Carboniferous — -VEGETABLES. 

Bromids.  lodids. 

Chlorids.  Oxyds. 

Sulphurets.  Selenurets. 

Arseniurets.  Tellurets. 

A  lluv  ial — PASTRY. 

Magnetic  py-rites.  Cuss't  hard  py-rites. 

Iron  py-rites.  Copper  py-rites. 

Crop-course,  cream.  Float  rock. 

Plumbago  pudding,  with  southern  dip. 

Drift — DESSERT. 

Assessments  on  the  half-shell. 
Dividends,  over  the  left. 

LIQUORS. 

Old  Potosi.  Ale  &  Norcross. 

Hide-sack.  Santa  Rita. 

Chamber-tin.  Cheat-'em  de  Fraud. 

The  dinner  lasted  some  eight  hours,  and  certainly  was  the 
most  sumptuous  "spread"  ever  seen  in  Washoe. —  Vir 
ginia^  Nev.  Enterprise,  1864. 


DO     METALS     GROW. 

\T  is  supposed  by  some  that  the  metals  were 
formed  or  deposited  in  some  past  age  of  the 
world  by  the  agency  either  of  heat  or  water, 
during  some  great  convulsions  of  nature  such, 
as  have  not  been  witnessed  in  the  period  em 
braced  by  written  history  or  tradition.     There 
are  reasons  for  doubting  the  reliability  of  this   opinion. 
That   various   mineral  substances  are  now  in  process  of 
formation  or  development  is  certain.      For  instance,   the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  283 

formation  of  stone  is  as  apparent  as  its  disintegration.  On 
the  beach  at  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  may  be  seen  a  conglom 
erate  of  clay  and  silicious  sand  impregnated  with  ferrous 
oxide,  in  all  stages,  from  the  separated  particles  to  the  lay 
ers  of  hardened  rock.  These  rocks  are  merely  the  particles 
of  sand  cohered  and  agglutinated  by  means  of  the  clay  and 
the  oxide  of  iron,  the  salt  water  acting  as  a  solvent  of  the 
softer  particles  and  the  sun's  rays  compacting  and  baking 
all  together  in  one  mass.  So,  also,  we  know  that  coal  is 
being  formed  from  peat,  The  intermediate  stage  is  lignite 
or  "brown  coal,"  which  in  turn  becomes  coal. 

It  is  morally  certain  that  gold,  silver,  copper,  and  some 
other  metals  are  now  in  process  of  formation  or  deposition. 
Abandoned  silver  mines  in  Peru  have  been  found  rich  in 
arborescent  deposits  of  the  metal  on  the  walls  of  galleries 
unused  for  many  years.  A  gold-bearing  region,  after  hav 
ing  been  cleaned  of  the  precious  metal,  gives  good  results 
after  the  lapse  of  only  a  few  years.  So  with  copper.  In 
the  Siberian  mines,  not  only  the  precious  carbonate  known 
as  malachite,  but  the  metal  itself,  in  a  state  of  almost  abso 
lute  purity,  is  deposited  on  the  walls,  roofs,  and  floors  of 
galleries  run  under  the  earth' s  surface.  In  some  places  it 
appears  in  masses  and  in  others  as  tree-like  formations,  with 
trunk  and  branches  similar  to  a  delicate  moss. 

What  becomes  of  all  the  gold  and  silver  unavoidably 
wasted  in  the  process  of  manufacture  and  the  wear  of  trans 
mission  from  hand  to  hand  as  currency  \  It  is  well  known 
that  with  all  the  care  exercised  in  the  manufacture  of  these 
precious  metals,  and  notwithstanding  their  specific  gravity, 
an  appreciable  portion  of  them  is  utterly  wasted ;  at  least 
so  distributed  as  to  be  incapable  of  being  collected  and  used 
again.  Is  it  annihilated  \  The  teachings  of  science  prove 
this  to  be  impossible.  Nothing  is  ever  wasted.  If  the  par 
ticles  are  thrown  into  the  atmosphere,  they  must  in  time 
seek  the  earth's  surface.  Are  they  attracted  by  some 
unknown  power  to  certain  localities,  and  if  not,  why  should 
not  the  streets  of  a  busy  city  become  in  time  deposits  of  the 
precious  metals  ? 

Perhaps,  after  all,  the  old  alchemists  had  an  inspiration 


284:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

of  what  may  yet  become  un  fait  accompli.  When  we 
understand  the  wonderful  processes  of  nature's  laboratory 
we  may  possibly  imitate  her,  and  grow  our  own  metals  as 
we  now  do  our  own  vegetables  ;  or  we  may  find  the  philos 
opher's  stone  and  actually  collect  the  particles  of  metals, 
if  we  can  not  transmute  a  base  mineral  into  one  of  the 
precious  metals.  —Scientific  American. 


ORATION  DELIVERED  BY  REV.  J.  A.  BENTON  AT  THE  FIFTH  COM 
MENCEMENT  EXERCISES  OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF  CALIFORNIA,  AT 
OAKLAND,  JUNE,  1868. 


R.  BENTON  said  instead  of  choosing  one  of  the 
scented  and  painted  wax- tapers  of  the  legal 
profession,  which  were  never  lighted  but  upon 
special  occasions,  the  Faculty  had  chosen  to  dip 
into  the  candle-box  in  common  use  and  take  out 
an  adamantine,  such  as  they  were  used  to  burn  every  week 
of  the  year.  The  Faculty  had  chosen  him,  however,  and 
though  he  doubted  the  wisdom  of  their  choice,  he  would 
give  such  light  as  he  could.  He  said  he  would  save  them 
trouble  by  telling  them  his  subject  before  he  began.  It 
was :  Empire,  or  some  of  tlie  Problems  of  Mankind.  The 
world  w as  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  world.  The 
world,  studied  in  this  light,  leads  to  science ;  in  any  other 
light,  to  sciolism. 

The  world  was  so  made  for  man  that  it  was  intended  to  be 
in  subjection  to  him.  All  right-minded  persons  respect  that 
venerable  authority  which  assigns  to  man  dominion  over 
air,  earth  and  sea.  Legitimately,  and  theoretically,  man  is 
lord  of  the  world.  It  is  his  asserted  privilege  and  right. 
But,  as  yet,  this  is  only  a  predicament  of  the  possible.  The 
prerogative  has  been  very  imperfectly  maintained.  Begin 
ning  frequently  with  the  rudest  forms,  the  attempt  to  main 
tain  the  prerogative  has  been  the  grand  struggle  of  the 
ages.  He  said  the  desire  for  dominion  naturally  concerned 
itself  with  his  subject.  He  spoke  .of  the  old  dream  of 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  285 

empire,  and  the  five  more  noted  empires  of  ancient  history, 
each  illustrating  some  dominant  truth  or  law.  The  empires 
of  the  Assyrians,  Babylonians,  and  Chaldeans,  for  instance, 
represented  the  idea  of  absolutism— both  in  war  and  peace 
—the  monarch  being  regarded  as  the  owner  of  his  empire, 
all  its  land,  all  its  property,  all  its  men,  and  all  their 
powers.  The  empire  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  represents 
the  idea  of  destination,  the  unalterable  frame  of  things- 
legalities  and  institutions  stereotyped,  the  unalterable  sacred- 
ness  of  what  has  been.  The  Grecian  empire  represents  the 
idea  of  culture,  beauty  and  satisfaction  to  be  obtained 
through  game,  exploit,  development,  art,  and  generous 
training,  and  even  war  as  an  art.  The  Eoman  empire  rep 
resents  the  idea  of  power  asserting  itself  magnificently, 
in  structures  of  conquest,  laws,  institutions,  cities,  aque 
ducts,  roads,  and  other  structures.  The  Chinese  empire 
represents  conservatism  ;  the  notion  that  perfection  has  been 
reached— that  the  best  is  possessed — that  the  highest  possi 
ble  or  practicable  has  been  gained,  and  that  men  have 
nothing  to  concern  themselves  with  but  the  traditions  of  the 
past  and  the  maxims  of  the  sages. 

The  five  modern  empires  are  the  Turkish,  British,  French, 
Eussian,  and  German,  and  if  we  recognize  the  Chinese  as 
modern,  it  is  the  sixth.  The  Turkish  empire  represents  the 
idea  of  fanaticism,  growing  out  of  a  fatalistic  philosophy, 
and  the  sword  is  regarded  as  the  weapon  both  of  the 
Church  and  State,  and  hewing  the  way  for  men  into  a  future 
heaven  of  sensual  delights.  The  British  empire  represents 
possession,  wealth,  rank,  and  asserted  superiority,  with  a 
patronizing  regard  for  the  great  masses  of  the  people.  The 
French  empire  represents  brilliant  achievement,  progress, 
aspiration,  steadiness  in  the  pursuit  of  fame,  along  with 
great  unsteadiness  of  method.  The.  Russian  empire  repre 
sents  the  idea  of  dominion,  vastness,  numbers,  grandeur 
undeveloped,  and  novelty  of  position,  and  something  of  the 
rawness  of  a  people  unused  to  their  place.  The  German 
empire  represents  historic  pride,  the  power  of  great  memo 
ries,  and  the  affinities  of  race,  language,  and  literature. 
And  the  modern  empire  of  China  represents  the  force  of 


286  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

ideas,  institutions,  and  characters,  in  holding  their  way  like 
a  gulf-stream  through  oceans  of  time,  in  conquering  their 
conquerors,  and  living  on  through  changes  of  dynasties  and 
invasions  of  philosophies.  If  we  introduce  this  New 
World  of  ours  into  the  view,  we  have  the  empire  of  Lib- 
berty,  for  the  northern  part  of  America  ;  and  the  Brazilian 
empire,  of  hope,  and  promise,  and  growth,  for  the  southern 
part  of  America. 

A  grand  problem  now  before  mankind  is  the  reconstruc 
tion  of  governmental  empires.  For  economical  reasons 
there  should  be  no  small  nations.  Other  things  the  same, 
the  government  of  great  countries  is  the  best  and  cheapest, 
In  this  view  of  a  re-division  of  mankind  into  governments, 
blood,  language,  and  religion,  are  commonly  the  ties  that 
must  bind  empires  together.  On  the  continent  of  Europe, 
then,  I  would  consolidate  all  the  peoples  whose  languages 
is  of  Latin  origin  into  one  empire  :  France,  Belgium,  Spain, 
Portugal,  and  Italy,  and  parts  of  Austria  and  Switzerland- 
Austria  should  cease  to  be,  and  its  parts  go,  according  to 
language  and  blood,  into  Italy,  Germany,  Greece,  and 
Russia.  The  German  empire  should  have  all  the  Teutonic 
peoples,  taking  in  portions  of  Austria,  Switzerland,  and 
Holland,  and  all  of  Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark.  Russia 
is  so  huge  in  proportions  as  to  need  no  enlargements  ;  but 
should  take  all  such  Scandinavian  and  Sclavic  peoples  as 
are  not  necessary  to  the  symmetry  and  local  requirements  of 
any  other  nation.  Turkey  should  be  thrust  out  of  Europe, 
and  sent  to  regions  east  of  Asia  Minor,  where  an  Arabic 
empire  might  live  and  flourish.  A  new  Grecian  empire 
should  then  replace  Turkey  in  Europe  and  Asia  Minor,  in 
Crete  and  in  Cyprus.  An  empire  yet  to  be  should  hold  the 
bulk  of  Africa  ;  Australasia  should  be  erected  into  a  power 
by  itself;  all  South  America  be  given  to  Brazil,  and  all 
North  America  to  the  Great  Republic.  He  would  have  a 
common  money  standard — a  world  coinage  ;  a  general  sys 
tem  of  weights  and  measures  for  all  sorts  of  business,  even 
to  estimating  the  tonnage  of  ships.  He  would  also  have 
a  common  language.  It  might  not  be  desirable  to  abolish 
the  vernacular  of  any  people,  but  it  would  come  in  time 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  287 

that  the  universal  language  proposed  should  become  the 
language  of  second  nature  to  multitudes  and  nations.  The 
French  is  at  present  the  common  language  of  the  polite  and 
social  world ;  the  English  is  the  language  of  commerce  and 
trade.  He  thought  philologists  might  prepare  a  common 
language  for  trial,  though  perhaps  it  was  too  soon  to  deter 
mine  how  it  should  be  constructed.  It  would  be  a  wonder 
ful  thing  to-day  for  our  advancement  were  such  a  language 
in  use  the  world  round — a  language  lofty  enough  for  wor 
ship,  dignified  enough  for  courts  and  diplomacy,  concise 
enough  for  science,  explicit  enough  for  commerce,  and 
smooth  enough  for  art,  and  tuneful  to  the  musical  ear.  It 
is  a  pressing  want  of  our  time,  and  will  be  of  all  the  com 
ing  times,  till  itself  has  come. 

The  progress  of  man  toward  dominion  is  greatly  hindered 
by  the  slowness  of  connection,  travel,  and  transportation. 
He  spoke  of  the  probable  exhausting  of  the  coal-beds  in  a 
few  centuries,  and  as  the  demand  for  light  and  heat  ob 
tained  by  artificial  processes  would  increase  in  geometrical 
ratio,  it  was  necessary  to  look  ahead  for  the  supplies.  We 
know  where  they  exist  in  unlimited  quantities.  The  oceans 
and  lakes  are  depositories  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen,  and 
little  else.  What  the  world  wants  is  a  cheap  method  of 
decomposing  water  into  its  elements. 

The  question  of  cheap  fuel  and  high  speed  is,  therefore,  a 
simple  question  of  chemistry.  When  the  ocean  steamer 
can  pump  her  fuel  from  the  sea  she  rides,  all  the  trouble 
of  loading  herself  with  coals  has  passed  away.  It  seems  to 
one,  when  he  thinks  of  it,  a  small  and  simple  thing  to  do 
to  cheapen  the  process  for  the  decomposition  of  water,  so 
that  its  elements  may  be  gathered  up  and  used  in  largest 
quantities.  Yet  it  is  certain  that  such  a  discovery  as  this 
requires  would  revolutionize  the  industry  of  such  a  country 
as  England,  and  modify  the  travel  and  traffic  of  all  nations. 
Nevertheless,  this  problem  is  before  the  world,  and  our 
science  ought  to  be  modest  till  it  has  solved  it.  It  used  to 
be  enough  to  say  of  a  man,  "He  will  never  set  the  ocean 
afire,"  to  consign  him  to  dull  mediocrity.  Till  he  does  set 


288  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  ocean  aflame,  let  no  man  of  science  be  accounted  wise 
above  his  generation. 

The  grand  advance  to  be  made  in  electricity  engaged  the 
speaker' s  thoughts.  We  had  made  use  of  the  speed,  but 
had  not  mastered  the  power  of  the  lightning.  That  which 
has  such  velocity,  that  which,  instantaneously,  makes  iron 
run  like  water,  must  have  the  most  terrific  energy  folded 
up  in  it ;  must  have  a  hundred  times  the  power  of  steam  ; 
must  carry  a  storm  in  the  bulk  of  a  hogshead.  When 
these  problems  in  physical  science  shall  have  been  hand 
somely  solved,  we  may  conclude  that  we  have,  as  a  human 
race,  won  our  empire  of  the  sea,  as  well  as  our  conquest  of 
the  land. 

The  atmosphere  still  remains,  but  he  did  not  think  we 
should  obtain  much  dominion  in  that  element  in  our 
present  state  of  attainment.  Ballooning  at  best  was  a 
clumsy  affair,  and  the  birds  we  imitated  could  carry  little 
weight.  If  a  flying  machine  succeeded,  it  would  only  as  a 
flattering  experiment,  and  to  make  a  journey  by  one  would 
be  like  walking  a  long  distance  or  crossing  the  sea  in  a 
row-boat.  Successful,  swift  as  a  meteor,  cheap  and  safe 
navigation  of  the  air  must  be  postponed  until  we  have 
found  something  ton  times  lighter  than  hydrogen  gas  to  in 
flate  our  air  ships. 

From  air  he  passed  to  light,  a  subject  in  which  beauty 
and  mystery  are  more  charmingly  combined  than  any 
where  else  in  nature.  But  this  light,  already  a  powerful 
agent  in  vegetable  and  animal  chemistry,  in  all  other 
natural  chemistries,  is  even  now  employed  as  an  agent,  in 
some  of  the  arts,  in  bleaching,  dyeing,  printing,  and  the 
laboratory  of  the  photographer.  The  solar  spectrum  is 
a  marvelous  thing,  and  there  is  no  end  to  the  possible 
adaptation  of  it  to  human  amusement,  satisfaction,  instruc 
tion  and  benefit,  both  natural  and  moral.  The  secret  of 
landscape  painting  is  certainly  in  the  light ;  and  our  inven 
tion  ought  to  do  more  than  simply  to  shade  it  off,  as  in  the 
pearl  picture.  The  time  must  come  when  the  sun  and  the 
prepared  canvas  shall  furnish  us  better  colors  and  forms, 
and  groups  and  combinations,  than  ever  grew  up  under 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  289 

the  hand  of  Zeuxis  or  Apelles,  Raphael  or  Titian.  And 
we  are  not  to  scorn  the  idea  that,  if  the  light  can  do  such 
homely  work  as  to  bleach  clothes  and  assist  the  laundress, 
there  may  be  further  great  utilities  and  facilities  in  it, 
which  shall  work  as  many  more  transformations  than  the 
rains  of  heaven  do,  as  the  floods  of  light  exceed  the  floods 
of  rain. 

Music  next  engaged  the  speaker' s  attention.  He  did  not 
attach  much  importance  to  the  unwritten  music,  the  har 
monies  of  the  spheres,  &c.  One  thought  is  that  the  pos 
sibilities  of  music  as  a  science,  have  not  been,  all  of  them, 
reached  hitherto.  If  all  the  possibilities  of  the  science  were 
reached  already,  and  if  all  the  possible  instruments  for  the 
expressing  of  music  were  known,  it  would  seem  from 
analogy  that  every  ear  should  be  opened,  and  every  nature 
charmed  by  it  in  some  of  the  varieties.  There  are  sights 
and  scenes  which  every  eye  loves  to  behold.  There  are 
some  articles  that  are  agreeable  to  every  palate.  There  are 
some  odors  that  come  up  as  fragrance  into  every  nostril. 
There  are  some  articles  that  give  delight  to  every  hand  that 
touches  them.  And  while  it  is  so  comparatively  easy  to 
find  those  things  which  shall  regale  all  the  senses  of  the 
great  majority  of  any  community  at  once,  except  the  sense 
of  hearing,  it  has  frequently  been  a  matter  of  surprise  that 
there  was  no  music  which  would  find  a  willing  ear  in  every 
individual.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  from  the  analogy  of 
nature  and  fact,  that  our  music  has  not  reached  its  limits 
in  development,  and  that  there  are  yet  possible  inventions 
of  musical  instruments,  and  specimens  of  musical  composi 
tion,  which  shall  have  a  power  over  all  of  us  most  subdu 
ing  or  exciting ;  a  power  more  fraught  with  spells  and 
witcheries  than  was  ever  the  fabled  harp  of  Orpheus,  or  the 
song  of  the  syren. 

He  next  spoke  of  the  abodes  of  men,  and  said :  Has  it 
never  occurred  to  you  that  men,  the  masses  of  men,  live 
almost  like  the  troglodytes  still  ?  What  are  human  abodes 
made  of  ?  What  are  our  dwellings  ?  What  are  our  cities  ? 
What  more  melancholy  things  are  there  than  the  sites  of 
some  of  the  famed  cities  of  antiquity  ?  How  mortifying  it 

19 


290 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


is  to  think  that  mankind  can  build  of  nothing  that  can  last. 
Going  to  the  places  where  mighty  cities  once  flourished, 
what  do  we  find  1  Usually  fragments  of  stone,  and  brick, 
and  pottery,  and  heaps  of  rubbish,  and  dust,  and  desola 
tion. 

Human  abodes  and  human  monuments  should  be  built 
of  the  earth' s  metals  or  crystals ;  of  metals  that  can  not  be 
corroded  by  air  and  water,  as  iron  is  ;  of  metals  that  can  not 
be  easily  tarnished  at  all ;  of  metals  that  are  as  sweet  and 
beautiful  to  the  eye  as  Corinthian  or  choicest  silver  ;  and 
of  metals  that  can  be  everywhere  produced  in  abundance 
at  the  cheapest  rates.  Our  clay-beds  and  sand-hills,  at 
best,  only  gave  us  a  "perfect  brick."  Could  we  release 
the  crystal  from  these  sands,  the  aluminum  from  the  clay- 
beds  in  so  large  a  quantity  that  our  houses  and  ships 
might  be  built  of  them,  they  would  last.  Certainly  it  is 
not  asking  very  much  of  our  science,  grown  so  great  and 
so  proud  in  these  later  years,  that  it  shall  furnish  us,  out 
of  its  more  than  two  score  of  metals,  one  at  least  that  shall 
be  fit  to  build  our  houses  and  our  cities  of,  so  that  they 
may  continue  after  us,  and  be  a  joy  forever.  It  is  time  we 
were  building  of  something  besides  "wood,  hay,  and 
stubble,"  brick  and  mortar,  and  broken  fragments  of 
crumbling  rock. 

On  chemistry  and  the  chemical  equivalents  of  starch  and 
sugar,  he  said,  though  they  are  nearly  identical,  and  can 
be,  by  a  costly  process,  transmuted  one  into  the  other,  no 
process  has  yet  been  made  public,  that  I  am  aware  of,  in 
America,  by  which  starch  can  be  made  into  sugar,  in  a 
large  way  and  cheaply.  The  question  of  the  supply  of 
sugar  for  the  increasing  use  in  the  colder  climates  of  the 
world,  without  resorting  to  the  cane-growths  of  the  tropics 
for  the  saccharine  matter,  is  an  important  one,  which  may 
create  revolutions  in  commerce,  and  modify  the  industries 
of  some  of  the  races  of  mankind.  When  fine  sugars  can  be 
made  from  artichokes,  potatoes,  wheat,  corn,  and  other 
cereals,  as  well  as  from  sap,  sorghum,  beet-root,  and  sugar 
cane,  the  sugar  supply  will  be  a  question  of  chemistry,  and 
will  forever  cease  to  be  a  source  of  perplexity. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  291 

Speaking  of  the  power  of  the  chemist  to  produce  mainly 
by  artificial  processes,  all  the  flavors,  odors,  and  pleasant 
aromas  which  are  found  in  the  world' s  leaves,  roots  and 
flowers,  and  earth's  minerals,  &c.,  he  said  the  people  did 
not  care  a  straw  Jiow  the  odor  has  been  compounded  whose 
fragrance  is  that  of  violets,  roses,  or  new-mown  hay.  And 
the  nostrils  are  educated  by  these  fabrications  to  the  enjoy 
ment  of  sweet  sensations,  and  are  not  disturbed  by  an  in 
quiry  into  the  history  and  extraction  of  the  perfume.  But 
when  we  come  to  the  tasting  organs,  to  mouth  and  palate, 
we  are  very  fearful  of  the  laboratory  of  the  chemist,  and  of 
things  artificially  made.  "We  are  governed  by  our  preju 
dice,  when  our  reason  will  teach  us  that  our  prejudice  is 
absurd.  Slowly,  indeed,  we  are  coining  to  eat  chemically 
prepared  food,  and  to  drink  chemically  compounded  drinks. 
Nature' s  processes  are,  all  of  them,  largely  chemical  in  their 
way ;  and  because  the  human  chemist  reaches  results  by 
more  direct  ways,  we  are  childish  enough  to  reject  the  re 
sults,  even  when  we  are  not  able  to  distinguish  the  artificial 
from  the  natural. 

He  then  spoke  of  adulteration  and  artificial  wines,  and 
said  : — Many  of  the  articles  with  which  food  is  adulterated, 
and  drugs  are  adulterated,  are,  in  fact,  just  as  good,  for  the 
ends  proposed,  as  the  genuine  article.  They  are  cheaper  in 
price,  and  are,  therefore,  improperly  palmed  off  as  genuine, 
and  there  is  the  wrong.  If  those  who  find  out  these  cheaper 
articles  would  manufacture  and  sell  them  as  substitutes  for 
the  real  ones,  but  equally  as  good  for  the  ends  proposed  by 
the  use  of  them,  while  less  costly,  there  would  be  good 
done,  and  not  evil.  And  it  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
coming  certainties,  that  we  shall  go  to  the  chemists  for  a 
hundred  things  needed  for  the  table,  the  chamber,  and  the 
nursery,  which  now  we  cultivate  slowly,  rear  painfully,  im 
port  expensively,  or  distil  watchfully,  because  we  can  have 
them  made  to  order  artificially,  of  the  best  quality,  and  can 
pay  for  them  out  of  a  moderate  income — science  and  art  hav 
ing  made  many  of  the  most  sumptuous  articles  and  greatest 
luxuries  of  the  olden  times,  the  common  possession  of  all 
laboring  men. 


292  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Last  of  all,  and  greatest,  is  the  dominion  over  man,  over 
mind,  over  all  the  inner  world,  the  problem  of  a  true  philos 
ophy.  The  human  mind  has  never  been  able  to  satisfy  itself 
in  regard  to  the  origin  of  its  ideas,  and  has  never  held  to  any 
self-consistent  theory  of  mental  development.  Human  spec 
ulation  has  flowed  mainly  in  two  channels,  running  nearly 
parallel,  sunk  deep  into  the  heart  of  things,  with  a  high  prom 
ontory  between  them,  difficult  or  impossible  to  be  passed 
over.  He  then  spoke  of  the  two  schools  of  philosophy  and 
their  leaders,  Plato  and  Aristotle.  The  one  regarded  the 
mind  itself  as  the  source  of  its  chief  ideas,  as  soon  as  it  came 
into  certain  conditions  and  relations.  The  other  contended 
that  the  mind  derived  all  its  ideas  from  its  sensations,  directly 
or  indirectly.  The  one  class  deduced — descended  from  gen 
eral  statements  to  the  particular  ones,  from  principles  to  their 
applications.  The  other  class  induced — ascended  from  par 
ticulars  to  the  general  law,  and  from  observed  facts  up  to 
the  great  principle.  These  classes  were  sometimes  known 
as  idealists  and  realists,  or  as  spiritualists  and  materialists. 

In  our  time,  the  two  styles  of  philosophy  are  often  known 
as  the  transcendental  and  empiric,  or,  better,  as  absolutism 
and  positivism.  The  prominent  modern  names — on  each 
side — are,  some  of  them,  these — Hegel,  Hamilton,  Cousin, 
Comte.  The  positive  philosophy  is  particularly  aggressive 
in  the  more  recent  years.  It  is  advocated  in  England  by 
Mansel,  Spencer,  Lewes,  and  Mill.  But  we  can  not  go 
wholly  with  either  great  party  ;  nor  can  people  generally 
do  so.  The  world  has  groaned  long  with  this  struggle. 
Civilization  has  been  retarded  by  it ;  truth  has  suffered 
from  it.  The  church  has  gone  laboring  between  them, 
like  an  ocean  steamer  in  rough  seas  ;  with  now  one  wheel 
clean  out,  and  now  the  other,  while  the  opposite  one  has 
been,  at  the  same  moment,  so  submerged  as  to  do  poor 
service,  or  none.  There  is  need,  therefore,  of  a  philosophy 
which  shall  not  call  itself  the  philosophy  of  the  absolute, 
nor  the  philosophy  of  the  conditioned,  which  shall  take,  if 
possible,  middle  ground  between  them,  and  take  all  the 
truth  from  both  of  them,  and  combine  them  into  a  harmo 
nious  whole.  And  this  is  the  problem  in  mental  philosophy 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  293 

now  before  mankind  ;  and  all  metaphysical  men  should  give 
long  and  earnest  attention  to  it.  They  should  do  so  all  the 
more  hopefully,  because  the  extreme  absolutists  and  the 
extreme  positivists  have  rushed  around  in  different  direc 
tions  from  opposite  positions,  into  nearly  the  same  cavern 
of  darkness — falling  off  into  almost  the  same  black  abyss. 
The  extreme  positivist,  at  the  end  of  his  research,  can  find 
no  God  at  all.  The  extreme  absolutist,  at  the  utmost  line 
of  his  speculation,  as  yet,  can  find  no  God  but  Pan.  Be 
tween  the  two  we  should  utterly  refuse  to  make  any  choice. 
It  belongs  to  our  time  to  frame  and  build  out  that  philoso 
phy  which  can  logically  distinguish  between  essence  and 
phenomena,  substance  and  property,  the  Creator  and  the 
creation,  the  Maker  and  man,  and  the  human  being  and  the 
Divine  Person,  and  rightly  deal  with  them.  The  chariot  of 
our  progress  can  not  long  go  upon  a  single  wheel.  The 
movements  of  both  of  the  philosophic  tendencies  are  required 
to  roll  on  the  vehicle  to  conquest.  And  if  wisest  hands  shall 
guide  its  steeds,  its  track  shall  smoke  ere  long,  but  with  the 
dust  of  stars.  And  then,  one  of  the  grandest  conditions  of 
rest,  joy,  and  hope  for  our  human  race,  will  have  gladdened 
the  world. 

It  is  by  looking  away  from  the  accomplished  to  the  unac 
complished,  that  we  get  our  bearings,  lose  our  pride  of 
attainment,  see  our  failings,  admit  our  deficiencies,  and  reg 
ulate  our  attitudes.  We  have  need  to  remind  ourselves 
that  our  century  is  only  one  of  the  centuries  of  time,  and 
not  a  very  advanced  one  at  that ;  that  we  simply  walk  the 
corridors,  and  enter  a  few  of  the  outer  courts  of  the  great 
temple  of  truth  eternal ;  that  it  is  reserved  for  those  more 
favored,  if  not  better  men,  who  shall  live  many  ages  after 
us,  to  possess  themselves  entirely  of  the  glorious  structure, 
penetrate  to  its  interiors,  behold  its  splendid  adytum,  han 
dle  its  sacred  arcana,  and  congratulate,  disport,  and  regale 
themselves  within  that  vast  rotunda,  whose  light  streams 
through  a  dome  of  solid  crystal,  without  flaw  or  fracture, 
and  paints  the  scene  within  with  such  a  charm,  in  such  a 
beauty,  as  never  was  on  land  or  sea. 

And  thus,  also,  in  our  little  individualities,  each  working 


294  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

so  much  alone  toward  its  destiny,  we  cling  and  creep,  snail- 
like,  up  the  steep  and  broad  incline  of  fact,  and  thrust  out 
for  a  time,  tentatively,  into  those  empires  to  be,  the  long 
antennae  of  our  knowledge  gained,  tipped  with  the  eyes  of 
our  faith.  And  then  we  retire,  leaving,  at  least,  our  shells  as 
the  way-marks  of  progress,  to  grow  more  shining  and  trans 
lucent  in  the  light  of  suns,  and  as  clear  white  specks  signal 
ing  the  march  of  Eternal  Wisdom  across  the  wastes  of  time. 
The  orator  retired  to  his  seat  amid  the  plaudits  of  the 
audience,  whose  attention  he  had  riveted  on  himself  from 
the  first  sentence  to  the  last  word. — S.  F.  Bulletin. 


A   MIDSUMMER   NIGHT. 

'Tis  summer's  night,  and  Earth  a  bride  is  dressed, 
With  silver  lamps  hung  round  her  azure  walls ; 

And  where  Day's  rosy  footsteps  late  had  pressed, 
The  purple  drapery  of  the  evening  falls. 

The  air  is  sensuous  with  the  breath  of  flowers, 
Whose  parted  lips  are  drunken  with  delight ; 

And  on  the  pathways  of  the  languid  hours 

Come  thousand  whisper' d  mysteries  of  the  night. 

The  winds  are  resting  in  their  hidden  deep, 
Or  coyly  hide  within  the  trembling  leaves, 

Where  dreaming  swallows  twitter  in  their  sleep, 
In  airy  nests  beneath  the  frowning  eaves. 

Down  by  the  margin  of  the  throbbing  sea, 
The  silent   tide  comes  creeping  on  the  land, 

Save  where  o'er  rocks  it  rippling  glides  away 
In  gurgling  murmurs  on  the  yellow  sand. 

Along  the  currents  of  the  sultry  air, 

With  drowsy   tongue,  Time  counts  his  ceaseless  flight ; 
And  Slumber  spreads  her  robes  o'er  joys  and  care, 

While  souls  like  sea-birds  fold  their  wings  in  night. 

Within  the  calm  repose  and  dreamy  hours, 
Ecstatic  peace  around  my  life  is  thrown  ; 

And  'mid  the  fragrance  of  the  drooping  flowers, 
Soft  lips  like  rose-buds  seem  to  press  my  own. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


295 


And  now  the  moon  rolls  up  with  ruddy  glow, 

And  tips  with  silver  each  for  shadowy  hill ; 
The  starry  hosts  march  onward  dim  and  slow, 

While  Nature  sleeps,  and  Earth  grows  lone  and  still. 

Night  lies  recumbent  on  the  breast  of  space, 

And  folds  the  worlds  around  with  brooding  wings  ; 

The  Earth  in  moonbeams  veils  her  dusky  face, 
Where  tranquil  rest  pervades  all  living  things. 

HERBERT  C.  DORR. 


MEDICAL   TOPOGRAPHY    AND    EPIDEMICS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 


CALIFORNIA  lias  the  most  varied  climatology 
of  any  territory  of  equal  area  in  the  world. 
This,  with  its  diversed  topography,  its  altitudes 
of  eternal  snow,  its  gigantic  forest  growths,  its 
extensive  tulares,  with  arid  basins  and  irri 
gated  bottom  land,  localize  a  wide  range  of  diseases.  And 
yet  it  is  claimed  that  nowhere  else  are  the  elements  of 
climate  combined  in  proportion  so  congenial  to  the  human 
system  and  so  favorable  to  the  development  of  all  the  intel 
lectual  and  physical  powers.  The  logical  deduction  from 
these  facts  is  that  the  race  born  and  trained  up  here,  should 
have  a  type  of  development  marked  and  distinct  as  the 
great  physical  features  of  the  country.  Certainly  the  chil 
dren  born  here  present  many  distinct  and  original  traits. 
But  we  wait  to  see  whether  they  make  better  men  and 
women  than  their  fathers  and  mothers. 

•The  hydrography  of  the  Coast  Range  presents  some  inter 
esting  phenomena.  Thus,  the  Santa  Anna  River,  the  largest 
on  the  Southern  coast,  rising  in  Mount  St.  Bernardino  and 
extending  for  one  hundred  miles,  only  reaches  the  sea  in 
very  wet  seasons.  The  San  Gabriel  sinks  and  comes  to  the 
surface  again.  Many  of  the  smaller  streams  sink,  a  few 
discharging  by  subterranean  channels  into  the  sea,  and 
others  are  sponged  up  by  the  arid  country  through  which 
they  flow. 


296  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

We  have  also  the  phenomenon  of  swelling  springs  and 
water-courses  in  dry  seasons  some  weeks  before  the  rainy 
season  sets  in.  This  is  accounted  for  in  part  by  the  change 
from  dry  to  moist  winds.  The  diminished  power  of  the 
sun' s  rays  in  the  shortening  days,  causing  less  evaporation 
of  springs  and  rivulets,  which,  having  a  uniform  supply, 
there  is  a  larger  quantity  of  water  coming  to  the  surface  and 
flowing  off.  An  intensely  hot  day,  or  a  dry  north  wind, 
will  cause  a  sudden  shrinkage,  and  the  swelling  will  reap 
pear  when  the  wind  or  heat  subsides. 

In  no  other  country  in  the  world  is  there  such  a  strange 
jumble  of  climates.  The  climate  upon  one  side  of  a  range  of 
mountains  is  distinct  from  that  on  the  other.  The  journey 
of  a  single  day  presents  every  phase  from  a  semi-tropical  to 
a  semi-frigid  climate.  San  Francisco  is  on  the  same  parallel 
with  Washington  and  St.  Louis,  and  yet  it  has  neither  the 
cold  winter  nor  the  hot  summer  of  these  places.  But  if  the 
wind  currents  cease  to  flow  in  from  the  ocean  for  a  day  or 
two  the  temperature  is  at  a  sweltering  heat.  Several 
instances  of  this  kind  have  occurred  during  the  present 
season.  The  mean  temperatures  of  spring,  summer,  autumn 
and  winter,  at  San  Francisco,  are  55,  59,  58  and  50  degrees 
respectively.  October  is  warmer  than  July  and  August, 
and  the  mean  temperature  of  the  whole  year  in  this  city  is 
59.9.  Once  only  the  thermometer  ran  to  97,  and  as  it  often 
falls  to  46  in  July,  a  range  of  41  degrees  might  occur  within 
twelve  hours. 

California  has  a  cloudless  atmosphere  for  about  two-thirds 
of  the  year,  except  on  the  sea- coast,  where  fogs  are  blown 
in  from  the  ocean.  These  are  charged  with  moisture.  Hence 
the  hills  of  the  Coast  Range  will  produce  cultivated  crops  in 
the  driest  seasons. 

The  epidemics  noted  as  prevailing  in  this  State  are  such 
as  are  denominated  Contagious,  as  Varioloid,  Scarlatina,  and 
Kubeola  ;  Infectious,  Typhoid,  Typhus,  and  Spotted  Fever ; 
and  MeteoraUous,  as  Influenza  and  Diphtheria. 

Malaria  fever  occurs  in  low  grounds  and  along -water 
courses.  There  is  also  a  malaria  known  as  the  Mountain 
Fever,  rarely  or  never  occurring  at  an  altitude  below  7,000 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  297 

feet.  This  form  of  disease,  it  is  asserted  Iby  some  medical 
authorities,  is  generated  in  low  lands,  and  only  modified  by 
the  new  atmospheric  conditions  found  at  a  high  altitude. 

Catarrhal  affections  prevailed  extensively  over  the  whole 
Pacific  coast,  from  October,  1863,  to  February,  1864,  but  in 
very  few  instances  did  the  disease  result  fatally.  While 
there  is  now  a  great  diminution  of  this  disease,  it  still 
prevails  extensively  during  our  wet  seasons,  and  yields 
very  slowly  to  medical  treatment. 

The  thermometric  and  barometric  tables  contained  in  the 
pamphlet  are  of  great  interest,  and  it  is  rarely  that  so  much 
and  so  valuable  local  information  is  crowded  into  a  smaller 
compass. —  £  F.  Bulletin's  Synopsis  of  a  PampJilet  by 
TTios.  M.  Logan,  M.  D. 


HOW    MOSAICS    AKE    MADE. 

'TRAVELER  writing  from  the  European  Con 
tinent  says  as  follows :  The  mosaics  seem  to 
absorb  the  most  time  and  money  in  the  least 
space,  •  unless  it  be  in  the  gold  decorations. 
We  saw  a  table  last  week,  less  than  six  feet  in 
diameter,  which  is  said  to  have  cost  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  requiring  the  labor  of  a  large  number  of  men  for  fif 
teen  years  in  its  production.  On  entering  the  hall  where  this 
kind  of  work  is  done,  I  could  not  doubt  these  enormous 
figures.  Suppose,  for  instance,  a  thousand  of  the  hardest  and 
most  expensive  stones  which  will  take  a  high  polish,  to  be  cut 
into  pieces  three-eighths  of  an  inch  thick.  These  pieces  are 
cut  the  other  way  into  small  pieces  like  shoe-pegs,  and  where 
the  shading  from  one  color  to  another  is  sudden,  these  pegs 
must  not  be  larger  than  a  needle.  Now  the  artist  cuts  and 
puts  in  these  little  pieces,  selected  according  to  their  color, 
so  as  to  give  the  coloring  wanted  by  the  workmen  as  dis 
tinct  as  though  painted.  Those  pieces  of  pegs  must  be 
fitted  so  closely  that  lines  of  separation  will  not  show,  and 
set  upon  end,  side  by  side,  like  type.  They  claim  that  ten 
thousand  different  shades  of  color  are  necessary  ;  and  in 


298  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

order  to  do  this  kind  of  work,  a  man  must  be  skilled  in 
colors  and  shades  as  a  painter,  in  order  to  place  the  colors 
properly  ;  then  be  the  most  careful  and  accurate  mechanic 
in  order  to  fit  the  pieces,  and  then  he  must  have  patience 
enough  to  work  on  the  cheapest  and  coarsest  pictures  one 
year,  and  upon  a  fine  one  from  ten  to  twenty  years. 


BIG    WAVES. 


HEN  the  great  ocean  is  disturbed  it  forms  sur 
face  waves,  which  are  sometimes  of  great  mag 
nitude.  In  a  gale,  such  waves  have  been  more 
than  once  measured,  and  it  is  found  that  their 
extreme  height  from  the  top  to  the  deepest  de 
pression  of  large  storm  waves  has  been  nearly 
50  feet,  their  length  being  from  400  to  600  yards,  and  their 
rate  of  motion  through,  the  water  about  half  a  mile  a 
minute.  Such  waves,  breaking  over  an  obstacle  of  any 
kind,  or  mingling  strangely  with  the  clouded  atmosphere 
raging  above,  are  the  wildest,  grandest,  and  most  terri 
ble  phenomena  of  nature.  When  they  approach  land, 
they  break  up  into  much  smaller  bodies  of  water,  but 
these  are  often  lifted  by  shoals  and  obstructed  by  rocks 
till  they  are  thrown  up  in  masses  of  many  tons  to  a 
height  of  more  than  100  feet.  The  tidal  wave  is  an 
other  phenomenon  of  water  motion  of  a  somewhat  dif 
ferent  kind,  producing  an  alternate  rise  and  fall  of  the 
water  over  all  parts  of  the  ocean  every  12  hours.  In 
addition  to  the  true  waves  there  are  also  many  definite 
streams  or  currents  of  water  conveying  large  portions  of 
the  sea  from  one  latitude  to  another,  modifying  the  tem 
perature  of  the  adjacent  land,  and  producing  a  mixture  of 
the  waters  at  the  surface  or  at  some  depth  which  can  not 
but  be  extremely  conducive  to  the  general  benefit  of  all 
living  beings. 

Storm  tides,  or  those  waves  which  occasionally  rush  with 
out  any  pause  along  narrow  and  confined  seas  or  up  funnel- 
shaped  inlets,  have  occasionally  proved  disastrous  to  a 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  299 

fearful  extent.  Thus  it  is  recorded  that  upward  of  100,000 
persons  perished  in  the  year  1232,  and  again  in  1242,  in 
this  way,  numerous  complete  villages  and  towns  being 
washed  away  by  a  wave  advancing  from  the  North  Sea 
over  the  low  lands  of  Holland.  Between  Nova  Scotia  and 
New  Brunswick  the  ordinary  spring  tide  often  rises  to  a 
height  of  100  feet,  sweeping  away  the  cattle  feeding  on  the 
shore. — All  the  Year  Round. 


THE    ANCIENT    MINT    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

IT  seems  that  they  had  in  the  vicinity  of  Santa  Barbara 
the  original  California  Mint.  The  Indians  of  Tulare  County 
generally  came  over  once  a  year,  in  bands  of  twenty  or 
thirty,  male  and  female,  on  foot,  armed  with  bows  and 
arrows.  They  brought  over  panoche,  or  thick  sugar,  made 
from  what  is  now  called  honey-dew  and  from  the  sweet 
Carisa  cane,  and  put  up  into  small  oblong  sacks,  made  of 
grass  and  swamp  flags  ;  also  nut  pipes  and  wild  tobacco, 
pounded  and  mixed  with  lime.  This  preparation  of  native 
tobacco  was  called  pispewat,  and  was  used  by  them  for 
chewing.  These  articles  were  exchanged  for  a  species  of 
money  from  the  Indian  Mint  of  the  Santa  Barbara  ranche- 
rias,  called  by  them  "ponga."  This  "ponga"  money  con 
sisted  of  pieces  of  shell,  rounded,  with  a  hole  in  the  middle, 
made  from  the  hardest  part  of  the  small  edible,  white 
muscle  of  our  beaches,  which  was  brought  in  canoes  by 
the  barbarians  from  the  island  of  Santa  Rosa.  The  worth 
of  a  rial  was  put  on  a  string  which  passed  twice  and  a  half 
around  the  hand — /.  <?.,  from  the  end  of  the  middle  finger  to 
the  wrist.  Eight  of  these  strings  passed  for  the  value  of  a 
silver  dollar,  and  the  Indians  always  preferred  them  to 
silver,  even  as  late  as  1833.  This  traffic  the  Padres  encour 
aged,  as  it  brought  them  into  peaceable  connection  with 
the  tribes  of  the  Tulare  Valley. — Santa  Barbara  Gazette, 
Sept.,  1860. 


300  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


PACIFIC  RAILROAD  INAUGURATION. ADDRESSES  AT  THE  FORMAL  OPEN 
ING    OF   THE    WORK. 


[HE  skies  smiled  yesterday  upon  a  ceremony  of 
vast  significance  to  Sacramento,  California,  and 
the  Union.  With  rites  appropriate  to  the  oc 
casion,  and  in  presence  of  the  dignitaries  of  the 
State,  representatives  of  every  portion  of  the 
commonwealth,  and  a  great  gathering  of  citi 
zens,  ground  was  formally  broken  at  noon  for  the  com 
mencement  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad — the  California 
link  of  the  continental  chain  that  is  to  unite  American 
communities  now  divided  by  thousands  of  miles  of  trackless 
wilderness.  Among  the  assemblage  were  pioneers,  who 
had  assisted  in  laying  the  foundations  of  the  Golden  State, 
who  had  dreamed,  toiled  and  schemed  for  years  in  behalf 
of  this  grand  enterprise,  and  clung  with  steady  faith, 
through  many  depressing  defeats,  to  the  belief  that  they 
would  live  to  witness  the  consummation  of  their  hopes  ; 
men  who  had  more  recently  determined  to  devote  their 
energies  and  their  means  to  the  execution  of  the  project; 
representatives  of  the  various  sections  of  the  State  who 
appreciated  the  importance  of  the  work  to  the  whole  Pacific 
coast,  no  matter  where  the  line  should  be  located  ;  high 
officials  whose  presence  and  earnest  approval  enhanced  the 
dignity  of  the  occasion  ;  divines  to  invoke  blessings  on  the 
work  ;  and  last,  but  not  least,  directors,  and  contractors,  who 
gave  substantial  assurance  that  the  brain,  the  muscle,  the 
gold  and  the  iron  were  ready  to  make  the  railroad  a  reality. 
A  noticeable  feature  of  the  inauguration  was  the  patriotic 
character  it  assumed.  The  orators  ascended  from  the  level 
of  material  considerations  to  the  contemplation  of  the  work 
as  a  "bond  of  Union,"  and  took  occasion  to  rejoice  over 
the  recent  declarations  that  henceforth  the  Union  is  to  be 
indissolubly  wedded  to  Liberty. 

Two  wagons,  adorned  with  flags,  drawn  by  horses  that 
were  also  decorated  with  the  national  colors,  were  stationed 
near  the  rostrum,  with  earth  ready  to  be  shoveled  out  for 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  301 

the  railroad  embankment.  On  one  of  these  wagons  was  a 
large  banner  bearing  a  representation  of  hands  clasped 
across  the  continent  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  with 
the  prayer  of  every  loyal  heart, 

"  May  the  Bond  be  Eternal." 

Shortly  after  twelve  o'clock  M.,  Governor  Stanford  ap 
peared  upon  the  stand,  and  the  ceremonies  of  the  occasion 
were  commenced. 

C.  Crocker  introduced  to  the  assemblage  Leland  Stanford, 
Governor  of  the  State  of  California. 

GOVERNOR  STANFORD'S  SPEECH. 

Fellow-Citizens : — I  congratulate  you  upon  the  com 
mencement  of  the  great  work  which,  in  its  results  to  the 
State  of  California  and  the  Pacific  coast,  and  to  the  nation 
itself,  is  to  be  what  the  Erie  Canal  was  to  New  York  and 
the  Western  States.  The  work  will  go  on,  from  this  side, 
to  completion,  as  rapidly  as  possible.  There  will  be  no 
delay,  no  halting,  ^no  uncertainty  in  its  continued  progress. 
We  may  now  look  forward  with  confidence  to  the  day,  not 
far  distant,  when  the  Pacific  will  be  bound  to  the  Atlantic 
by  iron  bonds,  that  shall  consolidate  and  strengthen  the 
ties  of  nationality,  and  advance  with  giant  strides  the 
prosperity  of  our  State  and  of  our  country.  The  blessings 
which  are  to  follow  the  completion  of  the  work  which  we 
this  day  inaugurate  can  not  be  fully  estimated.  Agricul 
ture,  commerce,  manufactures,  wealth,  and  population,  will 
feel  its  influence,  and  will  commence  with  it  a  new  era  in 
progress.  And  we  may  rest  assured  that  the  results  will 
be  equal  to  the  magnitude  of  the  undertaking,  which  is  one 
that  will  shed  luster  upon  the  enterprise,  the  energies,  and 
the  wisdom  of  our  people.  A  few  short  years  since,  the 
pioneers  of  our  State  looked  upon  a  field,  magnificent,  but 
wild  and  unexplored.  The  beautiful  river  at  our  side 
floated  upon  its  bosom  only  the  light  canoe  and  reed  raft  of 
the  untutored  native.  But,  under  the  stimulus  of  Ameri 
can  energy,  how  changed  the  scene.  The  stream,  from  its 
hitherto  clear  and  undisturbed  repose,  is  changed  to  a  busy 


302  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

channel,  bearing  the  evidences  of  labor  in  the  distant  hills. 
With  the  pioneer  appeared  upon  its  surface  the  heavy  and 
cumbrous  barge,  followed  by  the  slow  sailing  craft,  and 
soon  by  the  noble  steamer  freighted  with  the  wealth  of  a 
prosperous  State,  and  alive  with  travelers  urging  that  pros 
perity  to  its  furthest  limits.  The  Pacific  Railroad  will 
insure  still  another  change  ;  the  wealth  and  the  commerce 
of  the  East  and  the  West  is  to  float  upon  its  waters,  and  it 
is  to  behold  the  busy  denizens  of  two  hemispheres,  in  their 
constant  travel  over  the  great  highway  of  nations.  It  is  to 
realize  all  this  that  we  are  assembled  here  to-day,  and  we 
should  be  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  so  great  and  glorious 
a  privilege.  I  feel  honored  that  the  ground  in  the  progress 
of  the  construction  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  is  first  broken  by 
my  hand  ;  and  as  emblematical  of  the  importance  of  the 
work,  and  of  its  appreciation  by  the  people  of  the  State, 
and  their  determination  to  perform  what  is  now  under 
taken,  it  is  meet  and  proper  that  the  Governor  of  the  State 
should  be  present  and  perform  the  first  act  of  labor,  and  that 
we  should  invoke  God's  blessing  upon  tlae  undertaking. 

At  the  close  of  the  Governor's  remarks,  Rev.  J.  A.  Ben- 
ton  came  forward  and  offered  the  following  prayer  :— 

PRAYER    BY    REV.    J.    A.    BENTON. 

O  Almighty  and  everlasting  God  !  who  ridest  upon  the 
wings  of  the  wind  and  makest  thy  pavilion  round  about  thee 
dark  waters  and  thick  clouds  of  the  sky ;  who  hast  thy  way 
in  the  sea  and  thy  path  in  great  waters  ;  who  didst  speak, 
and  it  was ;  who  commandedst,  and  it  stood  fast ;  by  the 
wonderful  working  of  thy  hand  the  heavens  unfurl  their 
banners,  and  the  earth  loads  herself  with  fruits  and  decks 
herself  with  flowers  !  We  bless  thee  for  the  revelation  of 
thyself  in  all  thy  works,  and  for  that  which  thou  hast  done, 
and  for  all  thy  grace  in  permitting  thy  creatures  to  discover 
the  secrets  of  nature,  and  make  use  of  so  many  of  the  appli 
ances  of  art.  We  bless  thee  for  all  the  triumphs  of  art  and 
civilization,  for  the  steamers  that  plow  the  ocean,  the  loco 
motives  that  go  with  the  speed  of  the  wind,  and  the  light- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  303 

ning  winch,  harnessed,  runs  to  and  fro  to  do  the  bidding  of 
men.  We  bless  thee  for  all  the  knowledge  given  to  us, 
thy  creatures.  We  rejoice  that  thou  canst  make  all  things 
promotiye  of  thy  cause  and  kingdom  in  the  world,  that 
cause  which  is  the  cause  of  humanity,  and  that  kingdom 
which  embraces  mankind.  We  bless  thee  for  this  propitious 
day,  this  happy  hour,  which  we  have  waited  for  and  prayed 
for  through  the  lapsing  years.  O  God,  grant  thy  favor  unto 
this  enterprise  ;  bless  these  directors  and  officers.  May  this 
enterprise,  which  is  now  inaugurated  in  thy  name,  go  on 
speedily  to  its  completion.  Thou  didst  command  in  the 
words  of  thy  prophet  in  the  times  of  old,  saying,  "  Go 
through,  go  through  the  gates ;  prepare  ye  the  way  of  the 
people ;  cast  up,  cast  up  the  highway ;  gather  out  the 
stones ;  lift  up  a  standard  for  the  people ;  prepare  ye  the 
way  of  the  Lord  ;  make  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway  for 
our  God ;  every  valley  shall  be  exalted,  and  every  mountain 
and  hill  shall  be  made  low ;  the  crooked  shall  be  made 
straight  and  the  rough  places  plain.  And  an  highway  shall 
be  there,  and  it  shall  be  called  the  way  of  holiness  ;  the  un 
clean  shall  not  walk  therein  ;  but  it  shall  be  for  those,  and 
the  wayfaring  men,  though  fools  shall  not  err  therein."  In 
our  humble  way,  and  in  this  material  form,  we  enter  upon 
the  first  step  of  creating  a  highway  for  the  people  and  na 
tion.  O  Lord,  deign  to  accept  it  as  thy  work.  Let  "the 
wilderness  and  solitary  place  be  glad  for  it,  and  the  desert 
blossom  as  the  rose."  Let  it  be  a  source  of  power  to  this 
great  nation.  Unite  the  nation  again  into  a  power  which 
shall  guard  the  freedom  of  the  world.  O  Lord,  let  this  be 
a  bond  of  connection  between  the  East  and  the  West,  be 
tween  those  vast  expanses  of  ocean ;  let  thy  name  be  glorified 
amongst  all  the  islands  of  the  sea,  and  the  inhabitants  of  this 
great  commonwealth.  May  our  city  flourish,  and  be  a  city 
sought  out  and  not  forsaken  ;  may  the  blessing  of  the  Most 
High  be  poured  out  upon  this  work  and  all  such  enter 
prises,  now  and  forever.  Amen. 

At  the  close  of  the  prayer,  C.  Crocker  announced  that 
"the  Governor  of  the  State  of  California  will  now  shovel 
the  first  earth  for  the  great  Pacific  Railroad." 


304  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

The  two  wagons  loaded  with,  earth  were  driven  up  in  front 
of  the  rostrum,  and  Governor  Stanford,  with  a  zeal  and 
athletic  vigor  that  showed  his  heart  was  in  the  work  and 
his  muscle  in  the  right  place,  seized  the  shovel,  and,  amid 
the  lusty  cheering  of  the  crowd,  deposited  the  first  earth 
for  the  embankment.  The  enthusiastic  Charles  Crocker 
promptly  called  for  "  nine  cheers,"  and  the  crowd,  sharing 
his  enthusiasm,  cheeringly  responded.  The  sun  smiled 
brightly,  and  everybody  felt  happy,  because,  after  so  many 
years  of  dreaming,  scheming,  talking,  and  toiling,  they  saw 
with  their  own  eyes  the  actual  commencement  of  a  Pacific 
railroad. 

This  ceremony  ended,  the  Governor  returned  to  the  plat 
form. 

A.  M.  Crane  of  Alameda,  President  pro  tern,  of  the  Sen 
ate,  was  introduced,  and  addressed  the  assemblage  as 
follows : — 

SPEECH    OF    SENATOR    CRANE. 

Fellow-citizens : — I  do  not  know  what  I  can  say  to  add 
to  the  interest  of  this  occasion  that  has  not  already  been  an 
hundred  times  said,  and  better  said  than  I  can  say.  The 
great  enterprise  here  this  day  inaugurated,  is  the  consum 
mation  of  a  long,  arduous,  and  finally  successful  struggle, 
waged  often  with  faint  hopes  of  success,  persevered  in 
against  discouragements  and  obstacles  of  every  kind,  until 
finally  success  has  crowned  our  efforts.  This  is  an  occasion 
on  which  we  should  gratefully  remember  the  entire  and 
laborious  devotion  of  our  delegation  in  both  houses  of  Con 
gress  in  finally  securing  the  passage  of  the  act  which  is  des 
tined  to  commemorate  this  great  and  magnificent  enterprise. 
The  future — who  shall  predict  it  ?  and  what  language  shall 
be  used  even  in  a  faint  degree  worthy  of  the  subject,  or  the 
occasion  ?  San  Francisco  and  Boston,  the  two  distant  ex 
tremes  of  our  continent,  will  then  be  united  by  one  continu 
ous  and  unbroken  iron  track,  of  over  four  thousand  miles. 
How  magnificent  the  idea  !  What  a  triumph  of  human 
power,  and  what  an  honor  to  the  civilization  of  our  age.  Be 
tween  those  two  distant  points  passengers  may  be  conveyed, 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  305 

at  ordinary  rates  of  speed,  in  the  period  of  seven  days.  Start 
ing  from  the  metropolis  of  the  Pacific,  after  an  early  breakfast, 
the  passenger  will  lunch  at  Sacramento,  and  dine  the  same 
evening  at  Carson  City.  The  rising  sun  of  the  next  morning 
will  find  him  half  way  between  Carson  and  Salt  Lake  City, 
having  during  the  night  passed  down  the  entire  valley  of 
the  Carson  and  across  the  great  desert,  and  on  the  evening 
of  the  second  day  he  will  dine  at  the  wonderful  City  of  the 
Desert.  Having  accomplished  this  first  thousand  miles, 
more  or  less,  in  thirty-six  hours,  our  passenger,  after  the 
travel  and  rest  of  another  night,  will  awake  in  the  morning 
amidst  the  magnificent  scenery  of  the  South  Pass  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains — having  passed  during  the  night  the 
mountain  ranges  lying  between  the  great  valley  of  Salt  Lake 
and  Green  River,  crossing  this  stream,  passing  up  the  valleys 
of  the  Great  Sandy  and  Pacific  creeks  to  the  dividing  ridge 
between  the  waters  flowing  to  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific 
oceans.  As  the  sun  of  this  morning  shines  forth,  he  will 
look  out  upon  the  most  magnificent  works  of  the  Creator. 
Away  to  the  northwest  will  appear  the  cloudy,  snow-capped 
range  of  the  Wind  River  Mountains — to  the  southeast  the 
parallel  ridges  of  the  great  Rocky  range,  rising  one  behind 
the  other,  displaying  their  whitened  prominences,  and  in 
every  direction  the  grand  scenery  of  disjointed,  isolated, 
and  vast  masses  of  rock,  will  make  full  and  complete  the 
splendid  panorama.  Passing  amid  the  grandeurs  of  this 
scenery  down  the  valley  of  the  Sweetwater,  over  the  dividing 
ridge  between  that  and  the  Platte  River,  he  will  dine  on  the 
evening  of  this  day  at  Fort  Laramie,  and,  lying  down  to 
rest  again,  he  will  pass  during  the  night  rapidly  down  the 
great  valley  of  the  Platte,  arriving  on  the  following  morning 
at  an  early  breakfast  at  Fort  Kearny.  At  this  point,  cross 
ing  and  leaving  this  great  valley,  down  which  he  has  passed 
for  so  many  hundreds  of  miles,  he  will  pass  over  the  eme 
rald  prairies  of  Nebraska,  and  dine  on  the  evening  of  his 
fourth  day  at  St.  Joseph — having  thus  reached  the  Missouri 
River  in  three  days  and  a  half  from  San  Francisco.  This  is 
the  same  journey  which  the  early  immigrants  to  our  coast, 
myself  among  the  number,  accomplished  only  after  a  labo- 
20 


306  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

rious  march  of  an  hundred  and  more  days  ;  and  we  can  now 
hardly  realize  the  great  change  so  soon  to  come,  and  which 
has  been  so  imperfectly  depicted.  Nevertheless,  it  is  a 
fact  which  will  soon  be  upon  us.  It  has  been  often,  and 
again  and  again  remarked,  that  we  live  in  a  wonderful  age. 
This  saying,  from  its  frequent  repetition,  has  become  trite, 
but  is  none  the  less  true.  And  yet  how  few  of  us  really 
realize  its  truth.  We  are  living  in  a  wonderful — nay,  in  the 
most  wonderful  era  in  the  history  of  our  world.  Since  those 
of  us  now  in  the  middle  age  have  been  upon  the  stage,  more 
and  greater  advancement  has  been  made  in  all  the  arts  of 
civilization  and  human  progress  than  in  three  centuries 
before.  An  unseen,  imponderable  agent,  is  made  the  con 
ductor  (no  one  yet  has  explained  how)  of  thought ;  and  from 
the  farthest  extremes  of  our  country,  now,  day  after  day, 
as  the  conflict  rages,  we  are  informed  of  the  tremendous 
conflicts  and  battles  lost  or  won,  ere  yet  the  dead  are  buried 
or  the  wounded  cared  for.  The  wonders  of  photography 
I  need  not  allude  to — that  most  accomplished  and  finished 
of  all  arts,  by  which  the  rays  of  our  great  luminary  are 
forced  into  the  service  of  man,  and  made  to  paint,  severely 
true,  all  objects  at  will.  Other  and  former  eras  have  been 
characterized  as  the  age  of  bronze,  or  the  age  of  iron — of 
gold — of  steam — of  thought — of  right ;  and,  after  near  a 
century  of  abasement  and  shame,  our  nation  has  now  en 
tered  also  upon  the  age  of  liberty.  Let  us  for  the  moment 
glance  at  some  of  the  most  immediate  benefits  which  are  to 
accrue  to  the  people  of  our  own  State  from  the  construction 
of  this  great  work.  These  benefits  we  shall  begin  to  realize 
from  the  commencement.  So  soon  as  a  section  of  the  road 
is  placed  in  working  order,  its  advantages  will  become 
apparent,  and  the  farther  it  proceeds  the  more  and  greater 
will  these  advantages  become.  Our  yet  scarcely  developed 
mineral  resources  will  receive  a  new  impetus,  and  thousands 
of  tons  of  ores  containing  the  precious  metals  will  be  weekly 
delivered  at  extensive  metallurgical  works,  yet  to  be  erected 
here  or  at  the  Bay,  by  means  of  which,  by  more  perfect 
machinery  and  higher  appliances  of  art,  the  metals  can  be 
extracted  more  perfectly  and  with  greater  economy.  By 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  307 

this  means,  also,  millions  of  tons,  now  esteemed  worthless, 
in  the  usual  modes  of  working,  Avill  be  reduced  at  a  profit. 
The  copper  ores,  now  being  so  abundantly  discovered,  will 
be  rendered  of  increased  value  by  the  economy  of  transpor 
tation,  and  the  low  grades  of  those  ores,  now  abandoned  as 
worthless,  will,  for  the  same  reason,  be  made  available,  and 
found  to  contain  fortunes.  The  coal  of  our  coast  range  will 
be  afforded  at  low  rates  to  the  consumer ;  the  granite,  and 
marble,  and  other  building  rocks,  will  reach  the  centers  of 
trade,  and  contribute  to  the  erection  of  our  cities  and  the 
adornment  of  our  public  edifices ;  and  the  timber  of  our 
mountain  forests  be  rendered  accessible  for  all  the  purposes 
of  civilized  life.  Vast  tracts  of  land,  now  lying  in  its  virgin 
fertility,  owing  to  the  remoteness  of  markets,  will  be  brought 
into  cultivation.  Our  main  centers  of  commerce  will  become 
the  recipients  of  enormous  increase  in  every  branch  of  busi 
ness,  and,  more  especially,  manufactures  will  be  encouraged, 
and  become  promoted  to  an  extent  hardly  to  be  conceived, 
and  thus  employment  and  fair  remuneration  be  afforded  to 
thousands.  The  facility  of  rapid  communication,  bringing, 
as  it  were,  the  city  and  country  together,  will  lead  to  the 
development  of  many  as  yet  unknown  sources  of  wealth, 
and  will  induce  capitalists  to  invest  in  enterprises  now 
deemed  unfeasible.  When  this  great  work  shall  be  finally 
accomplished,  and  the  iron  track  shall  become  a  continuous 
highway  across  the  continent,  then  the  impetus  to  commerce, 
both  domestic  and  foreign,  that  will  follow,  can  hardly  be 
conceived,  and  from  this  our  State  will  reap  a  golden  harvest. 
There  will  be  saved  to  us  and  Nevada  Territory,  annually, 
at  least  three  millions  of  dollars,  which  would  otherwise  be 
charged  for  freight  and  insurance,  under  the  name  of  ex 
change,  on  the  hundred  millions  we  shall  annually  export 
of  gold  and  silver.  The  country  to  be  opened  to  civilization 
and  settlement,  lying  between  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the 
Missouri,  is  of  vast  extent.  The  Territory  of  Dakota  alone 
(which,  by  branches  from  the  main  road,  will  eventually  be 
penetrated  in  all  directions)  is  nearly  as  large  in  its  extent  as 
all  the  Southern  States.  Here  are  yet  to  be  the  happy  homes 
of  millions,  and  from  it  a  cluster  of  new  States  will  be  added 


308  CALIFORNIA   SCPw\P-BOOK. 

to  the  galaxy  of  our  mighty  Republic.  I  need  not  speak  of 
it  as  an  arm  of  national  defense,  nor  allude  to  the  rich  com 
merce  of  the  Indies  and  South  Sea  Islands,  nor  to  the  entire 
change  in  the  trade  and  travel  of  the  world  which  it  will 
effect.  These  have  all  been  so  often  and  so  well  presented 
by  others,  more  ably  than  I  can  do  it,  that  it  would  be  but 
a  waste  of  time  to  reproduce  them.  All  that  has  been  said, 
and  more,  now  approaches  its  realization.  A  few  years 
only  will  elapse, — probably  within  the  lifetime  of  the  larg 
est  portion  of  those  present  to-day — and  what  lias  been 
now  commenced,  will  be  completed.  Another  great  fact 
will  then  be  added  to  the  world' s  history.  Then  with  truth 
we  may  say— 

"  No  pent  up  Utica  contracts  our  powers  ; 
The  whole  boundless  continent  is  ours." 

Then  will  be  celebrated  an  event.  New  York,  Boston, 
Baltimore,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati,  St.  Louis,  Chicago- 
all  united  to  Sacramento  and  San  Francisco  by  iron  bonds 
and  golden  links — meeting  by  their -delegations  our  own, 
amid  the  grandest  of  Nature's  scenery,  will  hold  a  jubilee 
of  triumph  at  Pacific  Springs,  and  engrave  upon  the  great 
granite  face  of  Independence  Rock  their  memorial  of  the 
completion  of  this  greatest,  proudest  achievement  of  man. 
Our  sister  city  of  the  Bay  will  then,  rapidly  developed  by 
the  amazing  increase  of  her  commerce  and  manufactures, 
pass  beyond  any  at  present  conceived  limits,  and  sit  proudly 
the  queen  of  cities. — Sacramento  Union,  January  9,  1863. 


A    PHILOSOPHER    OX    LOVE. 

BE  our  experience  in  particulars  what  it  may,  no  man 
ever  forgot  the  visitations  of  that  power  to  his  heart  and 
brain  which  created  all  things  new  ;  which  was  the  dawn 
in  him  of  music,  poetry,  and  art,  which  made  the  face  of 
nature  radiant  with  purple  light,  the  morning  and  the  night 
varied  enchantments  ;  when  a  single  tone  of  one  voice 
could  make  the  heart  beat,  and  the  most  trivial  circum- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  309 

stance  associated  with  one  form,  is  put  in  the  amber  of 
memory  ;  when  we  became  all  eye  when  one  was  present, 
and  all  memory  when  one  was  gone  ;  when  the  youth 
became  a  watcher  of  windows,  and  studious  of  a  glove,  a 
veil,  a  ribbon,  or  the  wheels  of  a  carriage  ;  when  no  place 
is  too  solitary,  and  none  too  silent,  for  him  who  has  richer 
company  and  sweeter  conversation  in  his  new  thoughts, 
than  any  old  friends,  though  best  and  purest,  can  give  him  ; 
when  all  business  seemed  an  impertinence,  and  all  the  men 
and  women  running  to  and  fro  in  the  streets,  mere  pictures. 
For,  though  the  celestial  rapture  falling  out  of  heaven, 
seizes  only  upon  those  of  tender  age,  and  although  a  beauty, 
overpowering  all  analysis  or  comparison,  and  putting  us 
quite  beside  ourselves,  we  can  seldom  see  after  thirty  years, 
yet  the  remembrance  of  these  visions  outlasts  all  other 
remembrances,  and  is  a  wreath  of  flowers  on  the  oldest 
brows. — Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 


ONE    OF    THE    SEVEX    WONDERS    OF    THE    WORLD     UNEARTHED. 


CORRESPONDENT  of  the  Boston  Transcript,  in 
June,  1860,  announced  the  recent  discovery  of 
the  Mausoleum,  one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the 
ancient  world.  Everybody  has  read  the  story  of 
Artemisia,  that  most  inconsolable  of  widows, 
who,  when  her  husband  (her  own  brother,  by  the  way), 
Mausolus,  king  of  Halicarnassus,  died,  drank  his  ashes  in 
her  grief,  and  erected  to  his  memory  a  monument,  which, 
for  grandeur  and  magnificence,  was  called  one  of  the  seven 
wonders  of  the  world.  Guided  by  Pliny  and  other  writers, 
Mr.  Newton  pitched  upon  a  miserable  hamlet  in  Asia 
Minor  as  the  site  of  this  ancient  wonder.  Having  obtained 
the  consent  of  the  Turkish  Government,  the  next  thing  to 
do  was  to  purchase  the  rights  of  the  jealous  occupants  of 
the  soil,  a  matter  of  no  small  difficulty.  One  old  woman 
loaded  her  musket,  and  declared  by  the  Holy  Sepulcher 
that  she  would  neither  sell  nor  budge.  However,  on  being 
offered  enough  money  to  pay  the  expenses  of  a  pilgrimage 


310  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

to  Mecca,  she  came  down.  Removing  the  huts,  Mr.  New 
ton  commenced  his  excavations,  and  soon  had  the  satisfac 
tion  of  handling  portions  of  the  famed  Mausoleum,  exqui 
site  friezes  in  alto- relief,  fragments  of  colossal  lions,  and  of 
"beautiful  statues,  some  of  which  he  was  enabled  to  recon 
struct.  He  ascertained  that  the  great  tomb  was  a  quadrangu 
lar  building,  of  about  four  hundred  and  twenty- one  feet 
circuit,  one  hundred  feet  in  height,  surmounted  by  a  pyramid, 
on  the  top  of  which  stood  a  beautiful  four-horse  chariot,  in 
which  was  the  statue  of  Mausolus.  This  agrees  with  the 
ancient  accounts  of  this  magnificent  tomb.  It  was  erected 
more  than  two  thousand  years  ago,  about  the  year  353  before 
Christ,  and  Mr.  Newton  is  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  cast 
down  by  an  earthquake.  That  the  fragments  of  this  proud 
monument  of  human  affection  should  now  be  dug  up 
beneath  the'  site  of  a  miserable  Turkish  village,  is  a  strik 
ing  commentary  on  the  changes  and  vicissitudes  of  the 
world' s  history. 


REMAINS    OF    A    FOKMER    CIVILIZATION    IN    ARIZONA. 


HAVE  spent  much  time  since  in  Central  Ari 
zona,  and  have  studied  it  pretty  thoroughly.  I 
have  especially  turned  my  attention  to  the  previ 
ous  occupation  of  the  country  by  a  civilized  race, 
the  probable  cause  of  their  destruction,  and  its  sub 
sequent  occupation  by  the  present  race  of  wild  Apaches  and 
Pueblo  Indians.  It  is  a  matter  of  conjecture  when  this  race 
of  people,  who  have  left  so  many  grand  works  behind  them 
(now  in  ruins),  first  came  into  the  country.  It  is  presumed, 
however,  that  they  must  have  crossed  to  this  country  by 
Behring's  Straits,  and  traveled  south  until  they  found  a 
suitable  country  to  settle  upon.  There  are  but  few  remains 
of  these  settlements  to  be  found  north  of  the  thirty -seventh 
parallel  of  north  latitude,  but  south  of  that  line  and  west  of 
the  one  hundred  and  fourth  parallel  of  west  longitude  the 
ruins  of  ancient  cities  and  towns  are  found.  Humboldt, 
Ward,  Wilson,  and  Bourne,  besides  more  recent  explorers, 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP  BOOK.  311 

have  given  to  the  world  a  partial  description  only  of  the 
peculiar  features  of  the  former  settlement  of  Arizona  by  a 
race  far  superior  to  the  present  aboriginal  inhabitants, 
descendants  of  a  people  who  cultivated  many  of  the  arts 
and  sciences,  probably  brought  by  them  from  the  climes 
of  Asia  and  Africa.  My  explorations  in  the  central  por 
tion  of  Arizona  have  been  prolific  in  bringing  to  light 
many  new  features  of  the  ancient  occupation  of  the  country 
not  seen  by  the  explorers  who  have  preceded  me  since  the 
year  1805.  I  find  that  the  reports  of  Father  De  Mca  are  in 
the  main  true.  The  towns  which  he  gives  an  account  of  are 
traceable  from  the  Casa  Blanca  to  the  present  towns  of  Zuni 
and  Moqui.  I  date  the  period  of  the  destruction  of  these 
towns  from  1569,  and  since  the  visits  of  De  Nica  and  Capt. 
Espejo.  These  conclusions  are  arrived  at  from  geological 
appearances,  and  the  fact  that  those  cities  and  towns  were 
destroyed  by  volcanic  convulsions.  Ruins  of  former  hab 
itations  are  everywhere  to  be  found  in  Central  Arizona. 
Traces  of  acequais,  or  canals  for  conveying  water  to  supply 
the  inhabitants,  are  seen  'in  many  places.  Inscriptions  on 
rocks  severil  hundred  feet  froni  the  valley  below,  and  per 
pendicular,  note  with  accuracy  the  former  condition  of  the 
country,  showing  that  there  did  exist  lakes  of  great  size, 
which  communicated  with  the  ocean — as  Inscription  Rock 
on  the  Piscado  near  Zuric,  the  bluffs  of  Moquis,  those  of  Ojo 
del  Gallo,  and  the  basin  of  Owens  River  plainly  indicate,  the 
outlet  of  the  latter  being  at  Red  Rock  Canon. 

Returning  to  the  ruins  which  mark  the  occupation  of  the 
country  by  an  industrious  people  :  it  is  evident  that  there 
were  in  this  pre-historic  age  many  of  the  arts  and  sciences. 
Of  all  the  towns  and  cities  which  were  destroyed  by  the 
convulsions  of  nature,  there  remain  but  the  ruins  of  Zuni 
and  Moquis— the  latter  in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation— 
and  parts  of  Oraiba  and  Cosnina.  The  two  latter  are  pue 
blos,  near  the  Cosnena  Caves,  at  the  eastern  base  of  the  San 
Francisco  Mountain.  Moquis  is  built  principally  of  stone, 
upon  a  high  mesa  of  old  red  sandstone,  and  approached  by 
steps  cut  in  the  rock.  The  buildings  are  of  primitive  char 
acter,  flat  roofs,  and  three  and  four  stories  high.  The  inhab- 


312  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

itants  enter  their  houses  by  means  of  ladders,  ascending  to 
the  first  flat  roof,  and  descending  to  the  chambers  through 
an  aperture  by  the  same  means.  The  houses  of  both  Mos- 
quis  and  Zuni  are  plastered  inside  by  a  durable  cement, 
found  close  at  hand.  These  Indians  have  a  dialect  of  their 
own,  which  they  allege  is  purely  Aztec,  and  the  same  lan 
guage  used  by  Montezuma.  They  cultivate  the  soil,  raise 
sheep,  goats,  horses,  and  cattle,  spin  and  weave  cloth  in  the 
most  primitive  way,  and  reduce  their  grain  into  meal  by  rub 
bing  it  between  two  stones,  each  family  being  provided  with 
an  apartment  set  apart  especially  for  that  purpose.  They 
have  at  all  times  been  friendly  to  the  United  States. 

The  number  of  ancient  towns  and  cities  which  at  one  time 
graced  the  central  part  of  Arizona  was  about  two  hundred  ; 
some  of  them  were  densely  populated ;  and  it  is  evident  that 
the  inhabitants  were  a  warlike  people,  and  understood  the 
art  of  war  to  a  considerable  degree,  from  the  great  number 
of  fortifications  still  to  be  seen  all  over  the  country.  That 
they  carried  on  mining  on  a  large  scale,  for  gold,  silver,  and 
copper,  and  were  well  acquainted  with  gems.  The  tur 
quoise  is  still  held  in  great  esteem  by  the  Zunians  and  Mo- 
quis.  Traces  of  reducing  works  for  metals  are  found  in 
many  places  throughout  the  Territory.  The  agricultural 
and  mineral  resources  of  the  country  will  form  the  subject 
of  the  next  paper — in  which  localities  will  be  spoken  of  in 
detail,  especially  the  gold  and  silver  deposits,  ruby,  opal, 
diamonds,  and  other  gems  known  to  exist  in  certain  parts 
of  the  Territory. — Correspondence  S.  F.  Bulletin. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  313 


EXTRACTS    FROM:    AN    ADDRESS    BY    JOSEPH    w.    WINANS,    AT    THE 

STATE     AGRICULTURAL     PAIR,    HELD     AT     SACRAMENTO,    SEPTEMBER 

12,  1866. 


the  three  great  producing  interests  of  society 
which  constitute  the  sources  of  national  and 
individual  wealth — commerce,  agriculture,  and 
manufactures — important  as  each  is  in  its  rela 
tion  to  the  general  prosperity,  it  can  hardly  be 
denied  that  agriculture  occupies  the  first  and  manufactures 
the  second  rank  in  the  promotion  and  development  of 
public  security  and  virtue.  For  commerce,  while  it  often 
times  rolls  in  a  tide  of  opulence  which  augments  the  nation's 
influence  and  wealth,  yet  it  scarcely  ever  fails  to  end  in 
corrupting  the  habits  and  undermining  the  principles  of 
society  by  substituting  luxury,  licentiousness  and  enerva 
tion  for  enterprise,  morality  and  vigor.  And  such  is  the 
lesson  of  all  antiquity,  from  Tyre,  in  the  far  olden  time, 
down  to  the  declining  day  of  Rome.  In  the  contrast  between 
commerce  and  agriculture  are  involved  some  of  the  gravest 
questions  of  political  economy.  Commerce,  in  the  main,  is 
a  producing  agent  from  abroad  ;  agriculture  is  a  developing 
influence  at  home.  The  one  creates  weakness  and  diffusion 
in  the  State  by  denying  to  its  existence  a  self-sustaining 
power,  and  drawing  from  extraneous  sources  its  means  of 
support ;  the  other  brings  forth  and  husbands  the  resources 
of  the  State,  and  causes  it  to  derive  from  itself  the  material 
of  its  own  advancement.  It  is  the  difference  between  the 
man  who,  having  stored  his  mind  with  the  acquisitions 
of  others,  becomes  eminent  for  learning,  and  him  whose 
mind,  by  its  creating  power,  flashes  from  within  the  fires  of 
genius — that  difference  which  lifted  Homer  above  Varro. 
The  same  contrast  exists,  also,  between  commerce  and  manu 
factures. 

In  considering  the  claims  of  agriculture  we  are  first  struck 
with  the  spectacle  of  its  great  antiquity.  When  the  Divine 
fiat  first  cursed  the  ground,  for  Adam's  sake  it  then  decreed 


314  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

that  from  the  earth,  man's  bread  should  thenceforth  come. 
And  ever  since  that  early  day  when  it  was  declared  that 
the  sword  should  be  turned  into  the  plowshare,  the  plow 
has  been  the  universal  and  perpetual  emblem  of  peace, 
prosperity  and  plenty.  Stretching  backward  for  its  mytho- 
logic  origin  into  the  shadows  of  that  era  when,  by  the 
inspiration  of  Ceres,  Triptolemus  became  the  inventor  of 
the  plow,  agriculture  has  always  been,  from  the  remotest 
age  of  fable,  a  source  of  blessing  to  every  nation  and  to 
every  clime.  It  was  this  pursuit  which  gave  character  to 
the  Saturnian  or  Golden  Age — that  reign  of  purity  and 
peace  on  earth  when  the  people  were  blended  in  harmony, 
and  all  was  primitive  and  simple  in  the  thoughts  and  deeds 
of  men,  and  human  nature  glorified  itself  in  universal 
brotherhood,  and  lawlessness  and  violence  were  utterly 
unknown.  Of  this  happy  period  saith  the  historian  :  "  The 
King  of  Heaven  (Saturn)  employed  himself  in  civilizing  the 
barbarous  manners  of  the  people  of  Italy,  and  teaching 
them  agriculture  and  the  useful  and  liberal  arts.  His  reign 
was  so  mild  and  popular,  so  beneficent  and  virtuous,  that 
mankind  have  called  it  the  Golden  Age,  to  intimate  the 
happiness  and  tranquillity  which  the  earth  then  enjoyed." 
Visions  of  that  rare  beauty  which  rendered  the  Golden  Age 
the  more  resplendent  era  of  the  world,  and  agriculture  the 
noblest  of  pursuits,  occasionally  gleam  down  the  descent  of 
centuries  through  the  didactics  of  Hesiod,  the  idyls  of 
Theocritus,  the  pastorals  of  Bion  and  Moschus,  the  georgics 
and  bucolics  of  Virgil.  Let  me  not  weary  you  in  dwelling 
thus  upon  this  period  of  time,  for  I  regard  it  as  strikingly 
suggestive  of  that  amazing  advancement  in  prosperity  and 
progress  which  an  agricultural  people  may  attain  at  any 
period  of  the  world's  history,  now  and  hereafter,  just  as 
well  as  then.  Another  incident  connected  with  that  era  is 
not  without  its  lesson  and  example  at  the  present  time.  On 
the  statues  of  Saturn  were  hung  fetters,  to  indicate  the  chains 
which  Jupiter  had  once  imposed  upon  him.  For  this  reason 
it  became  a  custom  that  all  slaves  who  had  acquired  their 
freedom  should  dedicate  their  chains  to  him.  And  what 
more  appropriate  dedication  of  their  fetters,  in  this  great 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  315 

natal  day  of  freedom,  could  the  enfranchised  millions  of 
our  former  slaves  now  make  than  to  devote  them,  not  to 
Saturn,  but  to  Agriculture,  that  pursuit  of  which  he  was 
the  illustrious  developer  and  patron.  If  this  large  and 
most  perplexing  element  of  our  people  shall  have  their  in 
dustry  directed,  as  a  mass,  through  voluntary,  compensated 
labor,  to  the  culture  of  the  soil,  not  only  their  condition, 
but  the  welfare  of  the  nation  will  be  essentially  improved. 
Again,  agriculture  is  the  truest  and  most  reliable  source 
of  national  wealth.  This  view  does  not  design  to  disparage 
manufactures,  of  whose  large  influence  and  value  we  shall 
speak  hereafter.  It  has  been  shown  that  commerce,  while 
it  pours  in  a  broader  stream  of  luxury  and  affluence  than 
agriculture,  has  a  more  demoralizing  influence  upon  men 
and  manners.  But  the  wealth  of  agriculture  is  attended 
and  ennobled  by  a  train  of  moral  consequences ;  that  of 
commerce  is  only  useful  in  its  material  form.  The  one 
vitiates,  the  other  simplifies  the  habits  of  the  people  ;  the 
one  undermines,  the  other  stancheons  the  bulwark  of  the 
State.  The  wealth  of  agriculture  is  that  whose  value  comes 
from  its  sufficiency  to  satisfy  the  wants  and  the  desires 
which  it  provokes.  It  is  that  wealth  which  Seneca  de 
scribes  in  saying,  "  If  you  live  to  opinion  you  never  will  be 
rich  ;  if  you  live  to  nature  you  never  will  be  poor."  The 
primitive  pursuits,  the  simple  tastes,  the  limited  cravings 
of  an  agricultural  community  are  bounded  by  their  acqui 
sitions,  and  contentment  cheerfully  supplies  the  place  of 
opulence.  Not  so  with  those  riches  which  are  gathered 
from  the  spoils  of  war  or  the  commercial  intercourse  of 
naticfris,  for  these  are  evermore  creating  that  insatiable 
thirst  for  profusion  and  display ;  that  love  of  splendor 
which  vents  itself  in  the  boast,  "I  will  tear  down  my  barns 
and  build  greater."  Nor  is  agriculture  without  its  liberal 
tribute  to  the  material  resources  of  the  State.  Plutarch 
tells  us  that  at  Rome  the  public  treasure  was  kept  in  the 
temple  of  Saturn  as  an  intimation  and  monition  to  the 
people  that  agriculture  is  the  source  of  wealth.  And  such 
was  the  theory  of  the  Roman  empire  in  the  great  day  of  its 
grandeur  and  renown  before  the  Augustan  age,  and  the 


316  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

luxury  of  the  succeeding  generations  had  sapped  the 
foundations  of  its  virtue  and  its  strength.  In  further 
illustration  of  our  argument,  we  refer  to  the  fact  that  next  to 
gold  and  silver,  which,  from  their  peculiar  adaptation,  form 
an  arbitrary  standard  of  value,  and  are  therefore  used  as 
money,  come  the  products  of  the  soil,  which  constitute  a 
secondary  standard,  being  frequently  employed  as  a  sub 
stitute  for  money  and  used  as  a  medium  of  exchange.  This 
is  especially  the  case  in  the  Western  States  of  the  Union, 
where  whole  communities  exist  by  bartering  the  produc 
tions  of  the  earth  for  the  commodities  of  traffic,  and  espe 
cially  for  family  supplies.  If  gold  and  silver  have  a  stand 
ard,  and,  comparatively  speaking,  an  unchanging  value,  so, 
within  a  more  limited  degree,  have  wheat  and  barley.  It 
is  a  source  of  gratulation  that  this  system  has  been  freely 
adopted  in  our  own  State,  so  that  a  custom  has  arisen  and 
is  growing  into  favor  among  farmers  in  the  agricultural 
districts  to  procure  their  commodities  from  the  neighboring 
towns  upon  a  temporary  credit,  and  pay  the  debt  in  grain 
after  they  have  harvested  their  yearly  crops. 

Again,  agriculture  stimulates  and  fosters  the  patriotic 
sentiment  of  a  people.  While  society  around  him  is  shift 
ing,  transitory  and  unsettled,  prone  to  the  spirit  of  adven 
ture  or  the  temptations  of  a  nomadic  life,  he  who  tills  the 
soil  becomes,  as  it  were,  a  portion  of  its  substance,  acquires 
an  attachment  for  the  associations  which  surround  him, 
grows  fixed  and  local  in  his  inclinations  and  his  habits,  and 
permanently  plants  his  household  gods  amid  those  scenes 
where  his  broad  acres  spread  to  form  a  possession  for  him 
self,  a  patrimony  for  his  children,  and  where  he  fancies  that 
a  brighter  landscape  greets  his  eye  and  a  sweeter  music 
carols  in  his  ear  than  anywhere  on  earth  beside.  And 
thus  he  learns  to  love  the  country  to  which  his  fortunes 
must  forever  cling.  As  the  roots  of  a  tree  derive  their 
nourishment,  so  the  foundations  of  society  derive  their 
strength  from  the  culture  of  the  soil.  It  was  her  devotion 
to  agricultural  pursuits  that  rendered  Poland  so  glorious  in 
her  struggle  against  tyranny — so  deeply  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  freedom  that  the  whole  civilized  world  grew  sym- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  317 

pathetic  in  her  cause,  until  the  very  name  of  Pole,  whether 
applied  to  those  who  chafed  at  home  under  the  thrall  of 
despotism,  or  those  who  were  sorrowing  abroad  in  exile, 
became  a  symbol  of  the  love  of  country.  But  the  influence 
of  agriculture  stops  not  here.  "With  its  promotion  comes  a 
consequent  decrease  of  crime.  Not  in  the  quiet  homes  of 
husbandry  which  dot  the  hill-side  and  the  plain  ;  not  where 
the  farmer's  broad  domain  invites  to  daily  toil  and  sweet 
repose ;  not  where  the  valleys  sport  and  glow  with  the  rich 
plumage  of  the  nodding  grain,  does  guilt  abide  or  skulk  or 
dare  to  show  its  face,  but  in  the  crowded  dens  and  poisoned 
haunts  of  the  corrupted  city,  where  misery  and  vice  hold 
carnival,  and  all  which  greets  the  eye  or  sense  attests  the 
truth  of  the  quaint  maxim  that  "God  made  the  country, 
but  man  made  the  town."  No.  The  spread  of  farms  is 
fatal  to  the  growth  of  penitentiaries. 

It  is  equally  a  noticeable  and  gratifying  fact  that  in  Cali 
fornia,  as  men  gradually  lost  those  vagrant  habits  and  tur 
bulent  propensities  which  pertained  to  their  earlier  condi 
tion,  no  longer  devoting  themselves  exclusively  to  the  pre 
carious  pursuit  of  gold,  but  settling  down  into  the  more 
regular  avocations  and  industrial  employments  of  cultivated 
life,  the  taste  for  agriculture  has  progressively  increased, 
and  a  higher  tone  of  morals  has  succeeded.  And  still  this 
tide  of  progress  rolls  along  in  ceaseless  flow,  like  the  tre 
mendous  march  of  ocean.  For  the  first  age  of  California 
was  not  an  age  of  gold,  though  gold  was  the  sole  object  of 
its  energetic  search.  That  was  an  age  of  iron.  The  old 
order  of  the  ages  was  reversed,  and  the  golden  age  of  Cali 
fornia,  succeeding  the  age  of  iron  and  the  age  of  brass,  was 
destined  to  come  last.  It  came  when  men  had  learned  to 
realize  that  the  true  gold  for  which  they  were  to  labor  was 
not  that  which  glittered  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  whose 
search  corrupted,  whose  attainment  planted  in  insane  asy 
lums  those  who  sought  it,  but  rather  that  more  precious 
gold  which  waved  amid  the  yellow  corn  and  spread  its 
splendor  on  the  tasseled  grain. 

This  fertile  spreading  valley  of  the  Sacramento  and  its 
extensive  tributary  waters,  embracing  an  area  so  vast,  a 


318  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

soil  so  rich,  a  productiveness  so  marvelous,  that  it  seems 
to  have  been  created  in  nature's  sunniest  mood  ;  this  opu 
lent  expanse  of  glebe  which  centuries  have  fattened,  lying 
open  to  the  reach  of  all  who  covet  its  possession,  and 
giving  forth  its  liberal  increase  so  glibly  as  to  often  yie]d 
spontaneous  growth,  has  now  become  the  lield  and  the  in 
centive  for  the  welcome  toil  of  tillage  and  of  culture.  Stim 
ulated  by  such  powerful  inducements,  agriculture  is  con 
stantly  acquiring  an  increased  extension  and  importance 
in  spite  of  the  meagerness  of  our  populational  increase,  and, 
in  the  proportion  of  its  own  enlargement,  has  aided  in  pro 
moting  stability  and  order ;  has  improved  the  moral 
standard  ;  has  prompted  a  larger  disclosure,  a  more  abund 
ant  use  of  our  resources  with  an  added  dependence  upon 
them  for  our  support. 

California  is  a  remarkable  and  a  peculiar  State.  Stretching 
from  north  to  south  through  a  sweep  of  latitude  embracing 
ten  degrees  ;  spread  out  between  a  chain  of  mountains  and 
the  sea  ;  sentineled  upon  the  east  by  giant  cliffs  and  on  the 
west  soothed  by  the  ceaseless  murmurings  of  ocean,  its  rug 
ged  form  presents  the  rarest  features  of  the  wonderful  and 
picturesque.  Where,  in  the  wide  circuit  of  the  globe,  does  the 
tourist  find  a  grander  spectacle  than  the  majestic  elevation 
of  Mount  Shasta,  the  vast  gorges  of  Yosemite,  the  Geysers 
with  their  frightful  chasms  and  preternatural  uproar,  the 
colossal  forms  of  the  big  trees  of  Calaveras,  or  the  glittering 
splendor  of  the  Alabaster  Cave  ?  Within  its  strange  diversity 
of  soil  and  climate  it  seems  to  embrace  the  qualities  of  every 
zone.  Beneath  its  surface  lurks  the  costliest  store  of  minerals 
and  precious  metals,  while  through  its  forests,  skies,  and 
waters  range  all  varieties  of  game,  from  the  huge  grizzly  to 
the  hare  ;  from  the  wild  turkey  to  the  plover ;  from  the 
salmon  to  the  mountain  trout.  It  rears  the  frigid  pine  and 
blooms  with  the  magnolia.  Its  gardens  and  orchards  teem 
with  fruit,  whether  it  be  the  hardy  apple  or  the  delicate 
pomegranate,  the  quince  or  the  orange,  the  peach  or  the  ba 
nana,  the  cherry  or  the  fig.  From  its  prolific  soil  comes  every 
form  of  vegetable  life  down  to  truffles,  artichokes,  and  mush 
rooms.  Nowhere  else  within  the  limits  of  a  single  State  do 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP  BOOK.  319 

such  profusion  and  variety  appear  ;  nowhere  else  can  such 
rare  contrasts  be  enjoyed. 

Among  all  the  divisions  of  the  agricultural  department, 
it  is  safe  to  say  the  culture  of  the  vine  stands  foremost.  Of 
our  entire  resources,  without  exception,  this  wall  ultimately 
prove  most  valuable,  and  its  future  magnitude  is  quite  be 
yond  the  reach  of  calculation.  The  extraordinary  adapta 
tion  of  California  for  the  cultivation  of  the  grape  arises  from 
the  geniality  of  the  climate,  their  regularity  of  the  surface, 
and  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  No  other  single  State  upon  the 
surface  of  the  globe  exhibits  such  a  vast  expanse  of  territory 
undulating  in  hills  and  valleys.  And  these,  through  an 
extent  of  hundreds  of  miles,  are  formed  so  as  to  present  pre 
cisely  that  exposure  which  is  demanded  to  give  flavor  to  the 
grape.  Although  this  department  is  still  in  its-infancy,  yet  we 
are  discarding  all  the  exaggerations  of  the  press  and  speaking 
within  reasonable  bounds  when  we  rate  our  present  annual 
yield  of  wine  at  upward  of  a  million  and  a  half  of  gallons, 
while  the  number  of  young  vines  already  planted  and  hast 
ening  on  to  their  maturity  is  incredible.  When  we  consider 
that  the  extent  of  land  suitable  and  rapidly  coming  into 
use  for  wine-growing  is  greater,  as  has  been  authoritatively 
stated,  than  all  the  grape-producing  area  of  Europe,  and 
reflect  that  three  hundred  thousand  vines  and  upward  may 
sometimes  be  found  in  a  single  vineyard,  we  are  lost  in  the 
magnitude  of  the  subject.  Notwithstanding  the  recent  origin 
of  our  wine  manufacture,  the  evidence  is  multiplying  around 
us  that  wherever  it  is  prepared  by  experts  who  are  skillful 
and  experienced,  and  the  grapes  are  taken  from  a  good  loca 
tion,  our  wine  bears  favorable  comparison  with  the  products 
of  many  of  the  European  vineyards.  It  now  enjoys  a  higher 
reputation  and  more  just  appreciation  abroad  than  at  home  ; 
in  New  York  than  in  San  Francisco.  Every  year's  experi 
ence  will  improve  its  mode  of  manufacture  and  'the  quality 
of  grape  from  which  it  is  produced,  besides  imparting  to  it, 
before  long,  the  indispensable  character  of  age.  Already 
do  our  wines  comprise  a  valuable  source  of  export,  finding 
their  way  in  limited  but  choice  supplies  to  every  market  of 
the  globe.  And  when  we  contemplate  the  startling  fact  that 


320  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

many  of  the  old  European  vineyards  are  failing  and  others 
have  quite  given  out,  while  the  world' s  demand  for  this  great 
luxury  is  constantly  increasing,  we  may  well  believe  that 
California,  with  her  virgin  soil  enriched  by  the  accretions 
of  all  former  time,  with  her  million  hills  rich  in  the  elements 
of  inexhaustible  supply,  will  finally  supplant  the  effete  soils 
of  Europe,  and  become  the  vineyard  of  the  world.     Even 
the  knowledge  of  our  great  productiveness  and  the  pro 
spective  choiceness  of  our  wines  has  not  yet  reached  the 
apprehension  of  the  epicures  of  London  or  Vienna,  but  the 
time  will  surely  come  when  the  former  rule  will  mainly  be 
reversed,  and  the  homage  paid  so  long  unto  the  wines  of 
Europe  will  be  repaid  by  Europe  to  our  own.    It  must  be  so, 
because  our  soil,  our  climate,  our  formation,  all  conspire  to 
prove  that  we  can  soon  produce  the  richest  qualities  of  grape, 
and  in  such  copious  profusion  that  we  shall  never  need  to 
quicken  our  supply,  as  Europe  does,  by  deleterious  aids,  but 
shall  be  always  able  to  make  our  production  the  unadulter 
ated,  pure  juice  of  the  grape.    Another  and  not  unimportant 
consequence  arising  from  the  cultivation  of  the  grape  is,  that 
the  use  of  wine  as  an  article  of  home  consumption  is  sup 
planting  and  decreasing  the  demand  for  ardent  spirits.     Our 
earlier  wines  were  strong  and  heady,  but  more  recent  manu 
facture  has  rendered  them  comparatively  light  and  harm 
less.    As  stimulants  in  some  form  seem  to  be  an  indispensa 
ble  requirement  among  every  people,  that  form  which  is 
most  innocuous  is  best  promotive  of  the  public  welfare.     It 
has  been   observed  that  wherever  the  vine  is  cultivated 
throughout  Europe,  the  use  of  wine  becomes  general  among 
all  classes,  and  especially  among  the  yeomanry,  to  the  ex 
clusion  of  more  harmful  stimulants.    And  surely,  with  the 
facilities  which  we  enjoy  for  producing  the  choicest  effusions 
of  the  grape,  we  may  hope  ere  long  to  see  King  Alcohol 
dethroned  among  our  people,  and  his  reign  subverted  by 
the  milder  products  of  our  own  domestic  vintage. 

Of  the  three  great  kingdoms  of  production,  agriculture 
had  the  earliest  origin,  and  after  that  came  manufactures, 
and  then  commerce.  The  first  dates  backward  to  the  Adam- 
itic  era,  the  second  to  the  period  of  Tubal  Cain,  while  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  321 

last  owes  its  inception  to  the  enterprise  of  Tyre.  That 
genius  for  invention  which  constitutes  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
has  given  unto  manufactures  a  commanding  prominence. 
And  yet,  among  all  the  wonders  of  modern  invention  and 
discovery,  we  find  nothing  to  surpass  those  stupendous 
achievements  of  human  ingenuity  and  skill  which  belong 
unto  the  ancient  world.  What  though  we  can  flash  thought 
round  the  globe  by  electricity  and  span  the  earth  with  steam, 
yet,  with  all  our  progress,  we  can  not  rear  a  pyramid,  or 
carve  a  sphinx,  or  build  an  Appian  way.  What  combi 
nations  of  skill  and  labor  have  been  able  to  restore  those 
lost  arts  which  produced  the  bronzes  and  the  coins  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  the  Tyrian  purple,  the  Corinthian  brass,  or  the 
vases  of  Etruria  ?  Who  shall  equal  or  revive  the  hanging- 
gardens  of  Babylon,  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes,  or  the  Temple 
of  Diana  \  In  this  sharp  contrast  and  rivaled  grandeur  of 
the  old  and  new,  there  exists  the  cardinal  distinction  that 
what  man's  genius  wrought  in  ancient  times  was  wonderful 
but  abstract ;  what  it  now  contrives  is  marvelous  but  use 
ful.  A  practical  utilitarian  design  gives  bent  unto  the 
thought  and  industry  of  the  existing  generation. 

In  California  the  retarded  progress  of  the  manufacturing 
interest  has  not  been  owing  to  an  imperfect  sense  of  its  im 
portance  or  to  a  deficiency  in  the  industry  or  inventive  tal 
ent  of  the  people.  In  no  other  country  does  there  exist  a 
more  profound  skill  for  contrivance,  or  a  more  unremitting 
devotion  unto  labor.  As  a  tribute  to  our  invention,  fre 
quent  patents  are  finding  their  way  hither  from  the  Patent 
Office  at  Washington.  Although  it  is  a  popular  conviction 
that  the  promotion  of  manufactures  is  largely  essential  to 
our  prosperity,  yet  two  causes  have  combined  to  interfere 
with  this  great  interest — the  scarcity  of  operatives  and  the 
high  price  of  labor.  Indeed,  for  years,  and  weary  years, 
that  slow  increase,  that  almost  absolute  stand-still  of  popu 
lation,  which  resulted  from  the  double  influence  of  a  dimin 
ished  immigration  from  abroad  and  a  continued  emigration 
from  within,  has  retarded  the  advancement  and  almost  par 
alyzed  the  energies  of  the  State.  How  fortunate  the  reac 
tion  which  is  now  going  on  ;  a  reaction  which  has  stimulated 

21 


322  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

into  new  life  the  enterprise  of  the  people,  and  produced  an 
effect  so  palpable  that  what  was  recently  almost  a  retrograde, 
has  again  become  a  forward  movement  in  affairs.  Again,  in  the 
improved  condition  of  the  country,  the  population  is  enlarg 
ing,  while  the  wages  of  labor  are  decreasing  to  that  standard 
which  political  economy  prescribes.  With  these  advantages, 
with  the  possession  of  a  territory  whose  formation  and  pecu 
liarities  present  the  greatest  facilities  for  employing  water- 
power  and  conducting  every  mode  of  manufacture,  with  the 
increased  attention  of  the  operative  and  the  capitalist  directed 
to  this  valuable  interest,  with  the  growing  conviction  of  the 
instability  and  harmful  tendencies  of  mining  enterprises, 
what  is  there  to  prevent  us  from  taking  an  early  stand  among 
manufacturing  communities,  and  sharing  the  important  ben 
efits  which  they  confer  upon  the  citizen  and  State  ?  Under 
the  embarrassments  heretofore  existing,  it  is  surprising  what 
strides  we  have  already  made  toward  success.  It  is  true, 
that  beyond  the  quartz  and  grist  mills,  which  are  scat 
tered  through  the  State,  the  great  mass  of  our  manufac 
tures  and  manufacturing  investments  of  capital  and  labor  is 
limited  to  the  larger  cities,  and  chiefly  unto  San  Francisco. 
But  so  much  money  is  invested,  so  much  industry  employed, 
so  much  material  created,  and  such  valuable  fabrics  wrought 
in  this  department,  notwithstanding  past  impediments,  that 
it  now  has  the  most  complete  assurance  of  success.  Many 
a  city,  town,  and  village,  which  at  first  strove  for  commer 
cial  consequence,  and  then  struggled  through  the  sickly 
influence  of  failure  and  decline,  will  be  relieved  ;  and,  by 
its  conversion  into  an  emporium  of  manufactures,  will  be 
come  a  prosperous  mart  of  the  surrounding  districts.  Even 
the  checkered  fortunes  of  this  city,  the  capital  of  the  State, 
so  long  the  victim  of  disaster  from  the  ravages  of  fire  and 
flood,  might  be  repaired  and  her  lost  influence  restored  by 
turning  in  beneath  her  streets  the  waters  of  that  river  which 
has  so  often  rolled  above  them,  until  what  was  once  a 
scourge  is  converted  to  a  blessing,  sounding  its  praises  in 
the  music  of  the  frequent  water-wheel.  This  view  of  our 
condition  as  a  manufacturing  people,  however  strong  the 
contrast  between  what  we  have  done  and  what  we  can 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  323 

accomplish,  does  not  disparage  our  past  efforts  nor  under 
value  the  extent  of  manufactures  at  the  present  time.  In 
the  recent  annual  report  of  this  society  it  is  correctly  stated 
that  "leather  of  the  various  kinds,  boots  and  shoes,  har 
ness,  saddles,  whips,  every  description  of  cordage,  building 
material,  granite,  marble,  lime,  plaster,  cement,  wagons  and 
carriages ;  railroad,  passenger,  and  freight  cars ;  woolen 
goods,  such  as  blankets  of  all  kinds,  flannels  of  every 
description  ;  cloths  and  cassimeres,  carpets  ;  hats,  caps,  and 
various  kinds  of  clothing ;  glue,  asphaltum,  gunpowder, 
matches,  tar,  pitch,  resin,  mineral  paint,  spirits  of  turpen 
tine,  salt,  soap,  yeast  powders,  starch,  vinegar,  pickles, 
every  variety  of  preserved  fruits,  jams,  raisins,  figs,  mac- 
caroni  and  vermicelli,  castor-oil,  petroleum ;  wines,  bran 
dies,  and  the  various  kinds  of  spirituous  and  malt  liquors ; 
paper  of  every  variety  ;  glass  bottles  of  every  kind  demand 
ed,  earthern  and  stone  ware  ;  wood,  tin,  and  wire  ware  ; 
mining,  mill,  and  steamboat  machinery,  and  machinery  of 
every  kind  in  use  ;  agricultural  implements  and  various 
other  articles,  are  manufactured  in  the  State  with  greater  or 
less  success ;  very  many  in  sufficient  quantities  to  supply 
the  home  demand  and  keep  up  a  good  and  remunerative 
export  trade,  while  others  are  struggling  against  the  perse 
vering  competition  of  importation." 

And  this  compendious  statement,  comprehensive  as  it  is, 
gives  but  a  glimpse  of  the  reality.  California  is  a  paradox 
of  production.  In  the  strange  antithesis  which  its  versatil 
ity  involves  we  find  grouped  together  within  the  limits  of  a 
single  State  the  shot-tower  and  the  cotton-mill,  the  silk  fac 
tory  and  the  rope- walk,  the  refinery  of  sugar  and  the  pow 
der-mill,  founderies  of  iron  and  manufactories  of  wool,  glass 
works  and  oil-works  ;  here  an  inceptive  establishment  for 
smelting  copper  and  there  a  paper-mill ;  here  a  tannery  and 
there  an  arasta.  But  if  we  are  struck  by  this  contrast  and 
gratified  by  this  variety,  our  admiration  is  enhanced  in  the 
consciousness  that  all,  or  mainly  all,  of  the  material  which 
furnishes  these  institutions  with  their  staple  of  supply  is 
derived  from  our  own  soil,  and  that  our  native  products  have 
but  begun  as  yet  to  .find  the  means  of  their  conversion  into 


324:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

manufactures.  Already  we  number  in  the  State  about  three 
hundred  quartz  mills,  one  hundred  and  thirty  grist-mills,  two 
hundred  and  eighty  saw-mills,  and  forty  iron  founderies. 
In  the  manufacturing  department  of  our  industry,  meas 
ured  by  the  statistics  of  1860,  the  number  of  establish 
ments  was  three  thousand  five  hundred  and  five  ;  the 
capital  invested,  twenty-four  million  dollars  ;  the  value  of 
the  raw  material,  sixteen  million  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  ;  the  number  of  operatives  employed,  twenty-four 
thousand  ;  and  the  value  of  the  annual  product  of  manu 
factures  for  that  year,  about  sixty  million  dollars.  To 
these  figures  we  may  add  an  increase  for  the  present 
year  of  nearly  fifty  per  cent.,  which  will  cause  our  an 
nual  product  to  approximate  a  value  of  one  hundred 
millions. 

Christianity  and  civilization,  those  twin  sisters  of  a  birth 
divine,  starting  from  the  point  where  Eden  bloomed,  have 
been  moving  hand  in  hand  together  all  through  the  ages, 
and  all  round  the  globe  unto  the  utmost  reaches  of  the  West. 
And  here  to-day  we  greet  them  with  glad  voices  and  with 
loving  eyes.  When  Jacob,  gazing  eastward  for  the  Orient, 
declared  that  his  blessings  should  prevail  "unto  the  utmost 
bound  of  the  everlasting  hills,"  what  other  boundary  of 
earth  could  he  have  thus  foreshadowed  than  this  fair  land, 
whose  rugged  peaks  fringe  the  Pacific's  shore.  That  bless 
ing,  never  failing,  though  pronounced  so  long  ago,  was 
designed  to  find  its  latest  lodgment  here,  as  the  remotest 
point  in  stretch  of  distance  and  in  lapse  of  time.  Here,  at 
this  western  margin  of  the  globe,  our  pioneers  have  come 
into  a  heritage  which  rivals  the  prophet's  picture  of  the 
land  of  promise  ;  "  a  land  of  brooks,  of  water,  of  fountains 
and  depths  that  spring  out  of  valleys  and  hills  ;  a  land  of 
wheat  and  barley,  and  vines,  and  fig-trees,  and  pomegran 
ates  ;  a  land  of  oil,  olive,  and  honey  ;  a  land  wherein  thou 
shalt  eat  bread  without  scarceness — thou  shalt  not  lack  any 
thing  in  it ;  a  land  whose  stones  are  iron,  and  out  of  whose 
hills  thou  mayest  dig  brass."  Nor  is  this  all.  For  Cali 
fornia  was  no  less  the  offspring  of  political  necessity  than 
of  divine  appointment.  By  a  wonderful  analogy  the  des- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  325 

tiny  of  nations  lias  followed  that  same  law  which  ruled 
among  the  chosen  people.  And  when  the  poet  said, 

"  Westward  the  star  of  empire  takes  its  way," 

his  words  were  no  less  a  delineation  of  the  past  than  a  pre 
diction  of  the  future.  Yes,  ever  and  forever  westward  has 
that  star  moved  on  from  its  first  rising  in  the  east.  Asia 
"beheld  its  earliest  light  when  it  illumed  the  pride  of 
Babylon  and  Nineveh,  and  the  kingdom  of  Darius.  Europe 
next  grew  radiant  in  its  beams  when  it  gleamed  on  the 
might  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  bathed  the  modern  Pow 
ers  in  its  rich  effulgence.  Yet,  still  it  glided  on  to  pour  its 
latest  splendor  down  upon  America  with  a  pervading  glory 
that  kept  ever  spreading  on  across  the  continent  until  it  fell 
on  California,  the  empire  of  the  West,  the  land  where  grows 
the  olive  and  the  vine,  where  sounds  the  anvil  and  the 
loom,  where  shines  the  silver  and  the  gold,  whose  wide 
extended  sway,  broad  as  the  elements,  controls  the  wave 
with  Neptune's  trident,  the  fire  with  Vulcan's  hammer, 
the  air  with  the  caduceus  of  Mercury,  and  the  earth  with 
Ceres'  teeming  horn. 

O  California,  prodigal  of  gold, 

Rich  in  the  treasures  of  a  wealth  untold, 

Not  in  thy  bosom's  secret  store  alone 

Is  all  the  wonder  of  thy  greatness  shown. 

Within  thy  confines,  happily  combined, 

The  wealth  of  nature  and  the  might  of  mind, 

A  wisdom  eminent,  a  virtue  sage, 

Give  loftier  spirit  to  a  sordid  age. 


326  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


FREMONT   AND    SLOAT. 

IN"  the  spring  of  1846,  General  Castro  in  the  North, 
and  Pio  Pico,  the  Governor  in  the  South,  were 
waxing  hot  against  each  other,  and  preparing  for 
new  conflicts,  when  the  apparition  of  Captain 
Fremont,  with  his  small  surveying  party  of  old 
mountaineers,  and  the  hardy  and  indomitable  pioneers  of 
the  Sacramento  Valley,  and  the  Bear  flag,  put  an  end  to 
their  dissensions.  Castro  had  himself  prepared  the  way  for 
this  aggression,  by  driving  Fremont  and  his  surveying  party 
out  of  the  Mexican  settlements,  a  few  months  before.  The 
colony  on  the  Sacramento  necessarily  sympathized  with 
Fremont ;  and  rumors,  more  or  less  well  founded,  began  to 
run  through  the  valley  of  hostile  intentions  toward  all 
American  settlers.  But  resentment,  and  anticipations  of 
evil,  were  not  the  sole  cause  of  this  movement.  There  can 
not  now  be  a  doubt  that  it  was  prompted,  as  it  was  ap 
proved,  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  ;  and  that 
Captain  Fremont  obeyed  his  orders  no  less  than  his  own 
feelings. 

Fremont  was  still  on  the  northern  side  of  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco  when  the  American  flag  was  hoisted  at  Monterey, 
on  the  ever  memorable  seventh  day  of  July,  1846. 

Before  the  war,  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had 
fully  determined,  so  far  as  that  matter  rested  with  the  execu 
tive,  upon  the  conquest  and  permanent  retention  of  California, 
as  soon  as  the  outbreak  of  war  should  offer  the  opportunity. 
Orders,  in  anticipation  of  war,  were  issued  to  that  effect, 
and  it  was  under  these  orders  that  California  was  actually 
taken.  The  danger  of  that  day  was,  that  England  would 
step  in  before  us.  Her  ships  were  watching  our  ships  on 
the  coast  of  Mexico.  The  British  pretext,  it  is  said,  was  to 
have  been  to  secure  an  equivalent  for  the  Mexican  debt  due 
to  British  subjects  ;  and  it  is  understood  that  there  was  a 
party  here  who  favored  this  design. 

Because  Commodore  Sloat  did  not  rush  to  the  execution 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-POOK.  327 

of  the  orders  issued  in  anticipation  of  war,  on  the  very  first 
report  of  a  collision  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico, 
the  anxious  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  dreading  to  lose  the 
prize,  hotly  censured  him  in  a  letter,  which  reached  him 
after  the  event  had  broken  the  sting  of  its  reproaches,  and 
served  only  to  assure  him  how  well  he  had  fulfilled  the 
wishes  of  his  Government.  The  flag  of  the  United  States 
was  no  sooner  flying,  than  the  Collingwood  entered  the  Bay 
of  Monterey.  There  had  been  a  race  between  the  Colling 
wood  and  the  Savannah,  What  a  moment  was  that  for  us, 
and  for  the  world  !  What  if  the  Collingwood  had  been  the 
swifter  sailer,  and  Sloat  had  found  the  English  flag  flying  on 
the  shore  !  What  if  we  had  been  born  on  another  planet ! 
The  cast  was  for  England  or  the  United  States,  and  when 
the  die  turned  for  us,  the  interest  was  at  an  end. — Ran 
dolph"  s  Oration  before  tlie  Society  of  California  Pioneers, 
San  Francisco,  1860. 


A    RAIXY    DAY    IN    THE    SIERRA    BUTTES. 


HAD  planned  to  make  an  ascent  of  the  Buttes, 
but  the  morning  broke  cloudy  and  rainy,  much 
to  my  discomfiture,  and  I  closed  my  heavy  eyes 
to  sleep,  with  the  consoling  reflection  that  I  was 
spared  another  hour  of  somnolency.  And  it  was 
not  until  after  the  small  excitement  of  breakfast  that  the 
utter  desolation  of  my  situation  broke  upon  me.  What 
would  I  do,  all  this  rainy  day,  with  no  companionship, 
save  the  rough  miners,  with  whom  I  had  so  little  acquaint 
ance  ?  Books  there  were  :  the  inevitable  "  Patent  Office 
Reports"  and  "  Louisa,  the  Lonely  Orphan" — to  the  latter 
of  which  I  desperately  betook  myself,  though  my  eyes 
often  wandered  from  the  turgid  page  to  watch  the  wreaths 
of  mist  rolling  down  over  the  rugged  face  of  the  Buttes,  or 
the  rain  falling  in  slanting  sheets  between  the  sides  of  the 
ravine  on  which  the  house  is  situated ;  morose,  from  its 
dampening  influence,  "Buttes,"  the  dog,  crouched  beneath 


328  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  long  table,  and  the  draggled  rooster  skulked,  in- 
gloriously,  under  a  manzanita  bush.  But  after  a  few  hours 
of  patient  fretfulness,  the  rain  "held  up"  a  little,  and 
throwing  aside  the  sorrows  of  the  "Lonely  Orphan,"  I 
gladly  sallied  out  to  the  hill- side  opposite. 

On  my  way  across  the  ravine  I  found  a  green-looking 
snail,  buff-colored,  round,  and  about  three  inches  long ;  a 
repulsive  looking  fellow,  slimily  slipping  over  a  broad 
green  leaf.  I  wonder  how  it  would  seem  to  be  a  snail, 
carrying  one' s  house  and  home  wherever  sweet  fancy  led  ? 
If  ignorance  be  bliss,  the  snail  must  be  a  happy  fellow,  as 
he  slides  along  inanely  through  life.  But  there  are  many 
human  snails,  lymphatic,  lazy  creatures  who  know  neither 
joy  nor  sorrow,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  and  spend  life 
about  as  agreeably  to  themselves  and  others  as  this  fat 
fellow  whom  I  left  on  his  slimy  roost.  It  was  hard  work 
climbing  up  the  steep  mountain  side,  slippery  as  those 
famous  stairs  up  which  James  Crow  was  fabled  to  have 
performed  such  gymnastic  feats.  To  add  to  my  growing 
perplexity,  the  rain  began  to  fall  again,  and  I  was  fain  to 
seek  shelter  under  the  lee  of  some  projecting  rock,  while 
the  eddying  gusts  sent  me  forth  again  ;  just  so  a  man  some 
times  seeks  in  domestic  bliss  shelter  from  the  woes  of  the 
outer  world,  only  to  be  driven  forth  again  by  the  ill- 
tempered  wife. 

The  rain  fell  pitilessly  ;  my  thin  boots  were  wet  through, 
and  the  sharp  quartz  cut  them  like  glass.  Scrambling  up 
the  wet  hill -side,  I  discovered,  with  joy,  a  huge  sugar  pine, 
whose  trunk  had  been  hollowed  by  fire,  and  offered  a 
roomy  retreat  for  me  from  the  storm  without.  Here  I  en 
sconced  myself  and  gazed  with  undisturbed  serenity  upon 
the  "raging  element,"  which  fell  in  slanting  torrents 
around  me.  Before  me  rose,  in  faint  and  fainter  outline, 
the  steep  hills  which  mark  the  course  of  the  Yuba,  the  fire 
upon  their  summits  blending  with  the  steel-blue,  misty  sky 
above.  Eastward  the  firmament  hung  cold  and  leaden  over 
Washoe  valley,  just  as  the  clouds  of  adverse  fortune  have 
settled  over  the  prospects  of  many  a  poor  adventurer  in 
that  famous  country.  But  they  shouldn't  have  gone  to 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  329 

Waslioe,  but  have  come  up  to  Sierra  Buttes  and  made  their 
fortune  in  some  of  the  rich  quartz  leads  which  are  crying 
out  to  be  opened. 

Away  to  the  westward  I  discern  a  path  of  blue  which  I 
suppose  hangs  over  the  city  which  I  call  my  home.  City 
did  I  say  ?  It  scarcely  seems  that  such  an  enormity  exists — 
that  there  is  a  place  where  the  din  of  machinery  and  the 
roar  of  trade  burden  the  air.  Here,  so  utter  and  so  pro 
found  the  solitude,  that  one  thinks  that  such  noises  and 
sights  must  belong  to  another  planet.  Here  the  mists  roll 
coldly  over  the  silent  tree-tops,  the  ceaseless  rain  patters  on 
the  leaves,  the  chickadee  pipes  in  the  branches  overhead, 
the  prying  ant  runs  across  my  knee,  and  these  are  the  only 
sights  and  sounds  which,  meet  the  eye  or  ear.  And  as  I  sat 
here,  watching  the  change  of  the  air,  my  thoughts  and 
fancies  found  vent  in  rhyme  in  some  such  disjointed  way 
as  this  : — 

Is  there,  beneath  this  world's  expansive  rim 
Of  circling  hill,  and  grand  old  forest  dim, 
A  more  secluded  or  a  moister  spot 
Where  I  could  climb  ? — I  rather  reckon  not. 

Oh,  can  it  be,  that  off  there  in  the  West, 
Beneath  that  patch  upon  the  sky's  dark  vest, 
Just  large  enough,  without  a  waste  of  stitches, 
To  make  a  Hollander  a  pair  of  breeches  ? — 

Oh,  can  it  be  that  there  does  still  exist, 
Below  the  blue  and  far  beyond  the  mist, 
Such  things  as  bills,  insufferable  to  mention, 
Attachment  laws,  the  enemy's  invention  ? 

Bonds,  deeds  and  mortgages  and  such  like  trash, 
Including  that  which  worldly  folks  call  "  cash  ?" 
And  can  it  be  that  slander,  pride,  and  sin 
Grow  rank,  outside  the  hills  which  shut  me  in  ? 

These  pine-trees  sighing  on  their  rocky  slope, 
Have  many  a  blasted  top,  not  blasted  hope  ; 
The  squirrel,  safe  beneath  the  firm-set  rocks, 
Cares  not  a  nut  for  fierce  financial  shocks. 


330  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

And  here,  remote  from  city  and  from  plain, 
"  Unawed  by  influence  and  imbribed  by  gain," 
I,  and  the  cricket  and  the  chickadee, 
Defy  the  world,  within  our  hollow  tree. 

The  rain  ceased,  the  triangle  rang  out  the  hour  of  dinner 
in  the  ravine  below,  and  so  incontinently  quitting  my 
retreat,  I  descended  to  sublunary  things.  In  the  afternoon 
I  made  another  exploration,  and  fortunately  happened  upon 
a  cabin  which  appeared  to  be  temporarily  vacant.  Here 
were  books  :  Sears'  Pictorial  Abominations,  Moore' s  Melo 
dies,  Fox's  Book  of  Martyrs,  and  Abbott's  Life  of  Na 
poleon,  in  which  latter  fascinating  romance  I  forgot  the 
inclemency  of  the  remainder  of  the  day. 

JOHN  RIVERSIDE. 

DOWNIEVILLE,  Sept.,  1860.  S.  F.  Mirror. 


THE    GREAT    EARTHQUAKE    OF    NEW   MADRID. 


SHE  greatest  recorded  earthquake,  within  the 
limits  of  the  United  States,  occurred  in  New 
Madrid,  then  a  small  village  upon  the  Missis 
sippi,  since  in  the  State  of  Missouri.  The  agita 
tions  of  this  terrible  convulsion  commenced  at 
2  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  16th  of  Decem 
ber,  1811.  The  inhabitants  were  aroused  from  their  slumbers 
by  a  deep  rumbling  noise,  like  heavy  thunder  in  the- 
distance,  accompanied  with  a  violent  vibratory  movement 
of  the  earth  from  the  southwest  to  the  northeast,  so  violent 
at  times  that  the  people  were  unable  to  stand  upon  their 
feet  without  holding  on  to  something  for  support. 

It  was  dangerous  to  stay  in  their  dwellings,  for  fear  they 
might  fall  and  bury  them  in  their  ruins  ;  it  was  dangerous 
to  be  out  in  the  open  air,  for  large  trees  would  be  breaking 
off  their  tops  by  the  violence  of  the  shocks,  and  continually 
falling  to  the  earth,  or  the  earth  itself  opening  in  dark, 
yawning  chasms,  or  fissures,  and  belching  forth  muddy 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  331 

water,  large  lumps  of  blue  clay,  coal  and  sand,  and  when 
the  violence  of  the  shocks  was  over,  moaned  and  slept, 
again  gathering  power  for  a  more  violent  commotion. 

On  this  day,  twenty-eight  distinct  shocks  were  counted, 
all  coining  from  the  southwest  and  passing  to  the  northeast, 
while  the  fissures  would  run  in  opposite  direction,  or  from 
the  northwest  to  the  southeast. 

On  a  small  river  called  the  Pemisco  at  that  time,  stood  a 
mill  owned  by  a  Mr.  Riddle.  This  river  blew  up  (such  is 
the  expression  used  by  the  narrator)  for  a  distance  of  nearly 
fifty  miles,  the  bed  being  entirely  destroyed,  and  the  mill 
swallowed  up  in  the  ruins,  and  an  orchard  of  ten  acres  of 
bearing  apple-trees,  also  belonging  to  Mr.  Riddle,  nearly 
ruined ;  the  earth  in  these  explosions  would  open  in  fissures 
from  forty  to  eighty  rods  in  length,  and  from  three  to  five 
feet  in  width ;  their  depth  none  knew,  as  no  one  had 
strength  of  nerve  sufficient  to  fathom  them,  and  the  sand  and 
earth  would  slide  in,  and  water  run  in,  and  soon  partially 
fill  them  up. 

After  the  earthquake  had  subsided,  there  was  not  a 
perfect  row  of  trees  left  in  this  orchard — one-half  destroyed, 
some  leaning  in  one  direction,  others  directly  contrary  ;  some 
covered  to  the  limbs  in  these  chasms  as  they  filled  up,  and 
others  with  their  roots  turned  entirely  out  of  the  earth. 

Large  forest-trees  which  stood  in  the  track  of  these  chasms 
would  be  split  from  root  to  branch,  the  courses  of  streams 
changed,  the  bottoms  of  lakes  pushed  up  from  beneath  and 
form  dry  land,  dry  land  blow  up,  settle  down,  and  form 
lakes  of  dark,  muddy  water. 

Where  the  traveled,  beaten  road  ran  one  day,  on  the  next 
might  be  found  some  large  fissure  crossing  it,  half  filled 
with  muddy,  torpid  water.  It  was  dangerous  to  travel 
after  dark,  for  no  one  knew  the  changes  which  an  hour 
might  effect  in  the  face  of  the  country,  and  yet  so  general 
was  the  terror,  that  men  and  women  and  children  fled  to  the 
highlands  to  avoid  being  engulfed  in  one  common  grave. 
One  family,  in  their  efforts  to  reach  the  highlands  by  a  road 
they  all  were  acquainted  with,  unexpectedly  came  to  the 
borders  of  an  extensive  lake  ;  the  land  had  sunk,  the  water 


332  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

had  flowed  over  it  or  gushed  up  out  of  the  earth  and  formed 
a  new  lake.  The  opposite  shore  they  felt  confident  could 
not  be  far  distant,  and  they  traveled  on  in  tepid  water,  from 
ten  to  forty  inches  in  depth,  of  a  temperature  of  100  degrees, 
or  over  Iblood  heat,  at  times  of  a  warmth  to  be  uncom 
fortable,  for  a  distance  of  four  or  five  miles,  and  reached 
the  highlands  in  safety. 

On  the  8th  of  February.  1812,  the  day  on  which  the 
severest  shocks  took  place,  the  shocks  seemed  to  go  in 
waves,  like  the  waves  of  the  sea,  throwing  down  brick 
chimneys  level  with  the  ground,  and  two  brick  dwellings 
in  New  Madrid,  and  yet,  with  all  its  desolating  effects,  but 
one  person  was  thought  to  be  lost  in  these  commotions. 

The  morning  after  the  first  shock,  as  some  men  were 
crossing  the  Mississippi,  they  saw  a  black  substance 
floating  on  the  river,  in  strips  four  or  five  rods  in  breadth 
by  twelve  or  fourteen  rods  in  length,  resembling  soot  from 
some  immense  chimney,  or  the  cinders  from  some  gigantic 
stove-pipe.  It  was  so  thick  that  the  water  could  not  be 
seen  under  it. 

In  the  Mississippi  River,  about  five  miles  above  what  was 
then  called  the  first  Chickasaw  Bluffs,  but  in  later  times 
Plum  Point,  was  an  island  about  three  miles  long,  covered 
with  a  heavy  growth  of  timber,  which  sank  in  one  of  these 
shocks  to  the  tops  of  the  trees,  which  made  the  navigation 
extremely  dangerous  in  a  low  stage  of  the  river. 

About  four  miles  above  Paducah,  on  the  Ohio  River,  a 
large  circular  basin  was  formed,  more  than  one  hundred 
feet  in  diameter,  by  the  sinking  of  the  earth,  how  deep  no 
one  can  tell,  as  the  tall,  stately  oak  sank  below  the  tops  of 
the  tallest  trees.  The  sink  filled  with  water,  and  continues 
so  to  this  time. 

For  one  whole  hour  the  mighty  current  of  the  Mississippi 
was  turned  backward  toward  its  source  until  its  dammed- 
up  waters  were  able  to  break  through  the  barrier  ;  boats 
were  dashed  to  pieces  and  drifted  about  like  feathers,  or 
thrown  out  on  the  banks,  while  amid  the  awful  commotion, 
loud  rumblings  were  heard,  and  the  electric  fires  flashed  up 
and  down  and  every  way  through  the  air.  A  few  years  ago, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  333 

it  was  said  that  forests  and  cane-brakes  were  still  visible  at 
the  bottom  of  lakes  then  formed.  The  devastation  extended 
over  a  tract  of  country  three  hundred  miles  long,  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio  to  the  St.  Francis  River.  In  some  places 
mud  and  water  were  thrown  over  the  tops  of  the  tallest 
trees,  and  great  fissures  broke  in  the  ground,  running  uni 
formly  from  the  northeast  to  the  southwest.  The  people 
observing  this,  cut  down  trees  at  right  angles  with  the 
direction  of  the  fissures,  and  climbing  thereon,  escaped 
being  engulfed. 

Hundreds  of  these  chasms  were  discovered  seven  or  eight 
years  after  the  calamity  ;  and  as  late  as  1846  they  still 
appeared  like  artificial  trenches  dug  by  some  great  army. 
They  were  generally  parallel,  and  ranged  from  ten  to  forty- 
five  degrees  west  of  north.  The  region  is  still  called  "  The 
Sunk  Country,"  and  its  extent  along  the  White  Water  is 
some  eighty  miles  north  and  south,  and  thirty  miles  east 
and  west.  Humboldt  remarked  that  as  one  of  the  most 
wonderful  convulsions  known  to  history,  since  the  vibra 
tions  continued  through  several  months,  and  finally  cul 
minated  in  the  destruction  of  Caraccas. 


THE    HAWAIIAN"    ISLANDS. 
EARLY    HISTORY    OF    THE    ISLANDS. 

{HE  history  of  these  islands,  commonly  called  the 
Sandwich,  but  more  properly  the  Hawaiian 
group,  is  the  history  of  mightier  kingdoms  of 
the  earth,  confined  within  a  more  limited  range 
and  condensed  into  a  smaller  space  of  time.  The 
former  name  was  given  to"  the  group  by  Captain 
James  Cook,  their  discoverer ;  but  it  is  not  recognized  in 
the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  islands,  in  which  formal 
and  authoritative  records  they  are  invariably  called  the 
HAWAIIAN  ISLANDS,  which  is  also  the  designation  employed 
by  the  inhabitants.  Since  1778,  from  which  we  date  their 
discovery,  up  to  the  present  time,  the  archipelago  has 


334  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

passed  through  wars,  revolutions,  plagues  and  pestilence, 
anarchy,  religious  persecutions,  conversion  to  Christianity, 
and  religious  schisms,  such  as  has  required  ages  in  the  more 
civilized  nations  of  Europe  to  accomplish.  Civil  war  deso 
lated  the  country  until  finally  a  Polynesian  Alexander 
united  under  his  sway  the  whole  of  the  eleven  islands,  and 
the  descendants  of  Kamehameha  the  First  reign  to  this  day. 
The  islanders  had  their  traditions  likewise,  which,  of  course, 
were  mixed  up  with  much  superstition.  A  white  man,  who 
carried  a  god  with  him,  and  whose  memory  was  worshiped, 
had  come  among  them  in  the  dim  past ;  fragments  of  names 
from  Tahiti,  and  memories  of  large  canoes  from  the  south, 
were  extant  prior  to  the  time  of  Cook,  and  the  islands  were 
perfectly  cognizant  of  the  existence  of  that  cluster.  They 
also  preserved  the  genealogy  of  their  kings,  going  far  into 
the  remote  past,  to  a  period  equal  to  a  thousand  of  our 
years  ;  and  extraordinary  events,  such  as  great  floods  or 
earthquakes,  or  sudden  risings  of  the  sea,  were  always 
handed  down  from  father  to  son.  Many  of  their  names 
have  a  similarity  with  those  of  Tahiti,  New  Zealand,  and 
the  Society  Islands,  and  ethnography  would  class  them 
with  the  Malay  race.  Names  of  some  of  the  islands  of  the 
Marquesas  are  likewise  to  be  met  with,  and  a  tradition  still 
exists  of  a  large  expedition  having  been  fitted  out  and  sail 
ing  away  in  double  canoes  for  Tahiti,  returning  after  a 
lengthened  absence  with  wondrous  accounts  of  the  fertility, 
riches,  and  climate  of  the  place,  and  the  exceeding  fairness 
of  the  inhabitants.  It  is  strange  to  note  the  influence  which 
beauty  has  upon  savages.  The  Sandwich  Islanders,  for 
some  reason  or  other,  have  red  eyes,  and  the  thing  that 
struck  them  most  on  the  arrival  of  Captain  Cook  and  his 
crew  was  the  clear  brightness  of  their  eyes,  and  therefore  it 
was  that  they  were  predisposed  to  pay  them  divine  honors. 
They  particularly  noticed,  on  the  other  hand,  the  absence  of 
the  soft  guttural  tongue  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  talked 
of  their  visitors  as  the  men  with  the  harsh  voices.  One  can 
well  understand  Cook' s  men,  accustomed  to  rough  it  in  all 
climates,  and  with  a  certain  propensity  for  rum,  not  having 
the  most  melodious  voices. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  335 


EXTENT    AND    PHYSICAL    CHARACTERISTICS. 

Of  the  eleven  islands  that  form  the  Hawaiian  group,  but 
six  are  of  any  consequence,  and  they  are  named  as  follows, 
commencing  with  the  most  northerly,  in  latitude  22,  longi 
tude  160,  and  ending  with  the  most  southerly,  latitude  20, 19, 
longitude  155, 156  ;  Kauai,  22  miles  long  and  24  miles  broad  ; 
Oahu,  46  miles  long  and  25  miles  broad  ;  Molokai,  40  miles 
long  and  7  miles  broad ;  Lanai,  17  miles  long  and  9  miles 
broad  ;  Maui,  48  miles  long  and  30  miles  broad ;  Hawaii, 
88  miles  long  and  73  miles  broad.  The  other  five  islands 
called,  respectively,  JSfiihau,  Kahoolawe,  Molokini,  Lehua 
and  Kaulu,  are  but  mere  rocks,  covered  with  brushwood 
or  a  stunted  vegetation,  and  some  of  them  the  haunts  of 
innumerable  sea-birds. 

Kauai. — Kauai,  which  is  about  seventy  miles  from  Oahu, 
is  a  beautiful  island,  and  perhaps  the  most  fertile  of  any  of 
the  cluster.  A  fine  broad  river  flows  by  the  town  of 
Waimea,  fed  by  the  mountains  that  raise  their  broad  masses 
to  the  northward.  This  is,  perhaps,  one  of  the  reasons  of 
the  fertility  of  this  land.  The  high  lands  are  all  to  wind 
ward,  and  whilst  these  exposed  slopes  are  bare  and  precipi 
tous,  their  southeastern  declivities,  sheltered  from  the  rude 
wind,  are  covered  with  dense  forests,  and  the  mountain 
peaks,  attracting  the  ocean-fed  clouds,  distribute  their  con 
tents  on  the  vales  below.  It  is  seldom  that  these  heights 
are  free  from  cloud  or  mist,  and  the  constant  rain  forms 
miniature  waterfalls  that  are  continually  bringing  diluvium 
to  the  plains  on  the  sea-shore.  Besides  the  capital,  Waimea, 
there  are  two  other  villages  or  small  towns,  called  Waihea 
and  Hanapepe ;  but  the  gem  of  the  island  is  the  late  Mr. 
Wyllie'  s  plantation  at  Hanalei.  A  small  land-locked  bay, 
with  a  valley  extending  some  five  miles  inland,  watered  by 
a  never-failing  river,  and  the  deep  tropical  vegetation  that 
prevails  all  around,  render  this  spot  one  the  most  beautiful 
in  the  island.  The  evidence  of  labor  in  the  cultivated  fields 
of  sugar-cane,  and  the  beautiful  residence  of  the  owner  of 
the  estate,  add  a  charm  to  the  scenery  ;  the  only  objection  to 


336  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  harbor  being  a  dangerous  sand  bank,  formed  by  the 
river  at  its  junction  with  the  ocean,  which  caused  the  loss 
of  the  king's  favorite  yacht,  The  Pride  of  Hawaii,  in  1824. 
There  is  communication  with  Honolulu,  by  schooners  and 
a  small  screw  steamer.  Kauai  is  famed  for  its  mulberries, 
and  the  silk-worm  thrives  well  in  the  unexposed  parts 
of  the  island.  The  population  of  Kauai,  in  1860,  was 
148  foreigners  and  6,339  natives;  being  a  decrease,  since 
1853,  of  504  inhabitants.  We  shall  have  to  speak  of  this 
decrease  of  population  in  the  island,  and  its  cause,  further 
on. 

OaJm.—'We  now  come  to  Oahu,  the  most  important  of 
the,group,  on  account  of  the  town  of  Honolulu,  the  capital, 
being  on  it,  and  its  port  the  only  really  known  good  one  in 
the  Sandwich  Islands.  Hilo,  in  the  Island  of  Hawaii,  was 
formerly  the  capital ;  but  the  discovery  of  a  coral  reef  in 
the  Bay  of  Honolulu,  that  formed  a  natural  ^breakwater  to 
the  swell  of  the  Pacific,  caused  the  seat  of  empire  to  be 
removed  there  by  Kamehameha  the  First,  after  he  had  sub 
jected  the  Island  of  Oahu  to  his  rule.  The  first  view  of 
Honolulu  on  entering  the  harbor  is  very  picturesque  ;  on 
the  east  is  the  landmark  called  Diamond  Hill— so  called 
because  it  was  supposed  that  precious  stones  were  to  be 
found  there ;  then,  again,  to  the  north,  is  another  extinct 
crater— the  well-known  Punch  Bowl  Hill,  on  the  top  of  which 
is  a  battery  and  telegraph.  Behind  xthe  town  are  several 
small  salt  lakes,  which  are  artificially  dammed  up  in  order 
to  collect  the  crystals  as  they  form  by  evaporation.  From 
that  stretches  the  lovely  Nuuana  Valley,  the  pride  of  dwell 
ers  in  Honolulu — of  which,  more  anon.  The  background 
to  this  lovely  scene  is  formed  by  the  Kona  range  of 
mountains,  which  rise  to  a  height  of  about  four  thousand 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea. 


HONOLULU. 


You  enter  the  Bay  of  Honolulu  between  two  reefs  of  coral, 
on  which  the  surf  is  ever  breaking,  and  arrive  at  the  harbor, 
where  a  hundred  and  fifty  sail  can  ride  with  ease  and  safety. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  337 

This  coral  reef  is  gradually  extending  itself,  and  at  tlie  same 
time  narrowing  the  entrance,  so  that  some  engineering  will,  at 
an  early  time,  be  necessary  to  keep  the  channel  clear.  One  of 
the  objects  that  strikes  the  voyager  on  his  approach  to  Hon 
olulu,  is  the  large  church  built  of  coral,  with  a  high,  pointed 
steeple  ;  but  he  will  not,  as  formerly,  be  surrounded  by  a 
set  of  amphibious  men  and  women,  all  of  them  clambering 
over  the  sides  of  the  vessel  and  offering  fruits,  more  or  less 
forbidden.  The  spread  of  civilization,  joined  to  the  influ 
ence  of  the  missionaries,  has  checked  the  unbounded  licen 
tiousness  and  dissipation  that  prevailed  whenever  a  strange 
ship  came  to  those  shores.  The  hospitable  inhabitants  of 
Honolulu — and  they  are  proverbially  hospitable— always 
press  the  visitor  to  do  two  things  :  one  is  to  ride  round  the 
island,  and  the  other  is  to  go  up  to  the  Nuuana  Valley  to 
the  pali,  or  abrupt  wall,  that  seems  to  forbid  farther  prog 
ress.  Let  us  begin  by  the  latter. 


You  have  a  good  breakfast,  perhaps  on  some  of  the  mul 
let  that  Kamehameha  the  Third  built  the  fish-ponds  for,  and 
which  are  esteemed  the  delicacies  of  the  island  ;  your  break 
fast  is  washed  down  with  a  cup  of  the  famous  Kona  coffee, 
you  mount  a  horse  which  looks  very  like  a  mustang  from 
California,  and  away  you  start  on  an  eight  miles'  ride.  Pass 
ing  the  beforementioned  fish  preserves  and  salt  ponds,  you 
enter  upon  what  may  be  called  the  kitchen  garden  of  Hon 
olulu  ;  here  you  see  the  taro,  the  botanical  name  of  which  is 
arum  esculentum,  and  which,  when  baked,  pounded,  and 
then  mixed  with  w^ater  like  dough,  and  allowed  to  ferment 
slightly,  forms  poi — the  favorite  food  of  the  Islanders.  The 
large,  bright,  broad  leaves  of  this  plant  are  refreshing  to  the 
eye,  and  in  addition  you  see  patches  of  sugar-cane,  rice,  cof 
fee, 'clumps  of  banana  trees,  lime  groves,  and  rows  of  cocoa- 
nut  trees ;  whilst  through  the  valley  flows  the  bright  and 
limpid  river,  turned  from  its  course,  as  it  approaches  the 
town,  into  hundreds  of  small  water-courses,  each  having  its 
allotted  task  of  irrigation,  for  without  water  nothing  thrives 
on  this  thirsty  volcanic  soil.  This  work  of  irrigation  is  sup- 
22 


338  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

ported  by  the  Government.  You  ride  on  and  see  the  hills 
that  fringe  the  gradually  narrowing  valley,  covered  here  and 
there  with  flocks  of  sheep,  and  the  tinkling  bell  of  their 
leader  is  all  that  breaks  the  silence  ;  again  you  come  upon 
a  herd  of  half  wild  cattle,  who  stare  at  you  as  one  would 
suppose  the  natives  gazed  when  first  the  white  man  stepped 
upon  their  shores.  The  valley  narrows  and  the  hills  grow 
higher  and  greener,  and  the  forest  more  dark  and  somber  ; 
here  and  there  a  bread-fruit  tree,  with  its  strangely  cut 
leaves  arid  ungainly  trunk  breaks  upon  the  view,  or  the 
graceful  tree  fern  rises  above  its  neighbors,  or  the  beautiful 
ceiba  with  its  lace-like  leaves  ;  but  one  looks  in  vain  for  the 
once  so  abundant  sandal- wood  tree,  gone  long  ago  in  ex 
change  for  rum,  or  iron,  or  in  tribute  from  a  conquered  king 
to  his  victor.  Every  thing  is  very  beautiful,  and  the  distant 
roar  of  the  ocean  breaks  upon  the  stillness  without  disturb 
ing  the  sense  of  absolute  repose,  for  it  is  now  noon,  and  beast 
and  bird  and  insect  life  is  hushed,  and  nothing  is  distinctly 
heard  save  the  monotonous  foot-fall  of  our  horses,  and  a 
sound  as  of  falling  water,  which  gradually  increases  as  we 
proceed  on  our  way  up  the  valley.  In  about  eight  miles 
from  Honolulu  we  come  upon  a  series  of  waterfalls,  some  of 
them  of  considerable  height  but  of  small  volume,  and  all 
streaming  from  the  tops  of  the  mountains  and  forming  the 
river,  along  whose  banks  we  had  for  so  long  wound  our 
pleasant  way.  We  are  suddenly  stopped  by  an  abrupt 
wall  of  rock — called,  in  the  native  tongue,  pall — on  every 
side  save  by  which  we  entered,  are  we  shut  in.  Two  thou 
sand  sheer  feet  above  us  is  the  top  of  the  precipice,  on  every 
ledge  and  from  every  cranny  spring  long  waving  plants  that 
stretch  down  as  though  longing  to  take  us  in  their  tendrils ; 
there  is  a  constant  drip  from  above  that  keeps  them  ever 
fresh,  and  higher  up  where  the  sun  can  strike  they  break 
out  into  glorious  bunches  of  flowers.  "Thus  far  shalt  thou 
come  and  no  further,"  says  He  who  ordered  the  subterra 
nean  force  to  draw  this  line  of  volcanic  wall  across  the 
island,  for  on  the  other  side  from  that  by  which  we  ap 
proach  is  again  a  precipitous  descent,  shutting  out  a  pleas 
ant  valley.  The  Government  has,  after  much  expense  and 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  339 

labor,  cut  a  road  along  the  top  of  this  dyke,  but  it  is  tortu 
ous  and  difficult.  It  completely  shuts  out  one  portion  of 
Oalm  from  the  other,  and  can  be  compared  with  the  hog' s 
back  that  we  pass  over  to  go  to  the  Napa  County  Geysers, 
only  on  a  much  larger  scale.  Your  gallop  home  will  just 
give  you  time  to  go  up  Punch  Bowl  Hill  and  see  the  sun  set 
behind  the  Wianee  Mountains,  and  in  the  evening  you  will 
find  an  epitome  of  a  California  circus,  which  takes  immensely 
with  the  Kanakas. 

A    RIDE    ROUND    THE    ISLAND. 

The  ride  round  the  island  is  harder  work,  being  from  a 
hundred  to  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  ;  you  skirt  the  east 
ern  end  of  the  isle  until  you  get  to  Waihua,  passing  on  your 
way  a  strange  salt  basin  apparently  unconnected  with,  yet 
not  rising  above  the  level  of,  the  ocean.  It  is  nearly  circular, 
and  evidently  volcanic,  as  its  sides  are  lined  with  scoria  ; 
but  it  is  bitterly  salt,  and  in  very  hot  dry  weather  the  evap 
oration  is  so  great  that  a  solid  crust  forms  on  its  surface  suf 
ficient  to  bear  a  considerable  weight.  Waihua  is  well  wa 
tered  and  has  some  fine  sugar  plantations  ;  rice  also  thrives 
well  in  the  lower  ground.  After  leaving  Waihua  the  moun 
tains  come  close  down  to  the  sea,  and  the  road  runs  for  about 
forty  miles  along  the  coast.  At  this  part  of  Oahu  the  grad 
ual  rising  of  the  shore,  and  consequently  of  the  whole  island, 
and  apparent  receding  of  the  ocean,  is  very  striking.  Far 
inland  you  see  where  the  surf  formerly  broke  against  the 
precipitous  sides  of  the  mountain,  bringing  down  immense 
masses  of  rock  and  forming  caves  into  which  the  sea  rushed 
as  though  seeking  to  undermine  the  cliff  by  the  force  of  its 
unceasing  attacks. 

Everybody  who  knows  the  Sandwich  Islands,  knows  Dr. 
Judd,  the  hospitable,  noble-looking  man,  whose  interest 
in  the  group  is  identical  with  that  of  the  king,  and  whose 
wise  counsels  have  in  every  way  proved  beneficial  to  the 
Government.  It  is  here  in  Oahu  that  his  splendid  property 
begins ;  cattle  raising,  wool  growing,  cane  fields,  avenues 
of  cocoa-nuts,  tamarinds,  dates,  and  bananas  all  flourish,  and 
add  to  the  beauty  and  riches  of  this  princely  estate.  Ad- 


340  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

joining  to  it  is  the  fine  property  of  the  younger  Mr.  Judd, 
which,  although  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  island  and 
exposed  to  the  strong  winds  that  sometimes  blow,  is  never 
theless  well  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  sugar  and  rice. 
Kaauee  is  the  most  easterly  point  of  the  island,  and  thence 
the  road  lies  across  the  mountainous  district  Waihanea  to 
the  pali  already  mentioned,  at  the  head  of  the  Nuuana  val 
ley  ;  the  view  from  this  point  is  very  lovely.  The  island  of 
Molakai,  and,  on  a  clear  day,  the  heights  of  Maui  are  dis 
tinctly  visible.  Along  the  shore  to  the  north  of  Honolulu 
is  the  strange  bay  or  inland  lake  called  Ewa.  It  lies  about 
four  miles  from  the  town,  and  were  the  entrance  to  it  artifi 
cially  improved  it  would  form  a  formidable  rival  to  the 
present  harbor,  as  it  is  very  capacious  and  at  all  times  its 
water  is  as  calm  as  a  mountain  lake,  but  a  heavy  sea  breaks 
over  a  reef  at  its  entrance,  rendering  it  impracticable  for 
vessels  to  enter  as  it  at  present  exists. 


TRAVELING     FACILITIES. 


Horses  are  procurable  at  Honolulu,  but  as  every  proprie 
tor  has  plenty  of  them  about  his  plantation,  an  introduc 
tion  to  one  of  the  planters  or  merchants  will  always  keep 
the  visitor  well  mounted,  and  if  he  or  she  makes  herself  or 
himself  agreeable,  an  introduction  to  one  colonist  is  an  intro 
duction  to  all  ;  but  beware,  fair  lady,  or  timid  horseman, 
for  the  inhabitants  ride  like  the  very  mischief,  and  young 
ladies  to  the  manner  born  will  jump  upon  a  horse,  without 
saddle,  and  gallop  away  at  a  break-neck  pace.  The  grace 
ful  seat  of  the  natives  has  often  been  described  as  well  as 
depicted  ;  they  ride,  as  is  well-known,  astride  the  horse, 
male  fashion,  with  a  flowing  shawl  over  their  knees  in  front 
that  not  only  is  very  becoming  as  it  streams  behind  them, 
but  the  peculiar  nature  of  the  country  renders  such  a  seat 
on  horseback  better  both  for  rider  as  well  as  animal ;  indeed 
we  would  recommend  all  lady  travelers,  whether  they  sim 
ply  ride  round  the  island,  or  pursue  the  more  fatiguing  trip 
to  the  top  of  the  great  volcano  in  the  neighboring  island  of 
Hawaii,  to  wear  the  bloomer  costume,  and  ride  in  the  same 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  341 

way  as  the  sterner  sex.  At  first  it  will  be  strange  and  pain 
ful,  but  in  a  day  or  two  the  sensation  will  wear  off  and  the 
increased  convenience  will  amply  repay  for  the  momentary 
sense  of  awkardness  or  impropriety. 


THE     ROYAL     FAMILY. 


The  royal  family  have  made  Oahu  their  permanent  resi 
dence.  King  Kamehameha  the  Fifth  has  his  palace  near 
Honolulu,  and  his  great  delight  is  sailing  in  his  beautiful 
yacht  and  making  visits  to  Kauai.  His  Majesty  is  fond  of 
foreigners,  and  is  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  converse  with 
any  intelligent  stranger,  particularly  if  he  brings  forward 
any  scheme  for  the  improvement  of  the  kingdom,  either  by 
forming  companies  to  work  unclaimed  lands,  or  to  intro 
duce  to  the  world  the  valuable  woods  with  which  the  forests 
of  the  interior  abound.  The  present  king,  who  was  known, 
when  on  a  visit  to  San  Francisco,  as  Prince  Lot,  succeeded 
his  brother  in  November,  1863,  and,  although  not  so  hand 
some  as  his  predecessor,  yet  possesses  the  type  of  manly 
beauty  and  great  size  and  strength  common  to  the  family, 
from  Kalaniopua,  King  of  Hawaii,  to  Kamehameha  the 
the  First,  who  united  the  whole  archipelago  under  his  rule. 
There  is  always  that  tendency  to  obesity  as  they  grow  old 
that  marks  all  those  whose  strong  muscular  development 
is  unaccompanied  by  a  corresponding  muscular  exertion. 
The  royal  family  and  chiefs  of  the  different  islands  have 
always  been  celebrated  for  their  great  strength,  and  have 
been  known  to  take  a  full  grown  man  across  the  knee  and 
break  his  back  ;  thus  it  was  that  when  Kalainano  seized 
Captain  Cook  he  found  that  he  was  physically  weak,  and 
that  he  cried  out,  whereupon  he  concluded  that  he  was  no 
god  and  killed  him  with  his  dagger. 

THE    VARIETY    OF    FISH. HOTEL    ACCOMMODATIONS. 

The  shores  and  bays  of  Honolulu  abound  with  fish,  such ' 
as  the  albicore,   bonita,  flying-fish,  baracoota,  skate,  eels, 
and  a  large  species  of  prawn,  similar  to  that  dried  by  the 
Chinese  ;  but  the  great  delicacy  among  the  Oahuans  is  the 


342  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

mullet.  The  king  lias  his  royal  preserves  of  this  delicious 
fish,  and  as  the  Romans  fattened  their  lampreys,  so  are 
these  fed  daily,  though  we  hope  not  with  the  same  food  as 
the  ancients  used.  A  story  is  told  of  King  Lihiliho  and  his 
queen,  when  they  were  on  their  ill-fated  visit  to  England  ; 
they  were  taken,  among  other  show  places,  to  Billingsgate 
fish-market,  where  they  saw  some  of  their  favorite  fish  ; 
they  immediately  took  one  and  ate  it  raw  in  the  carriage  as 
they  went  home.  Hotel  accommodation  is  not  over  good  in 
Honolulu,  "but  the  climate  is  so  exquisite  that  the  visitor's 
time  is  chiefly  passed  out  of  doors,  and  the  hospitality  of 
the  colonist  is  so  great  that  any  respectable  person  soon 
finds  not  only  an  acquaintance  happy  to  afford  information 
as  to  the  neighboring  objects  of  interest,  but,  likewise  a  host 
anxious  to  assist  him  in  visiting  them,  and  indeed  no  one 
visiting  Honolulu  stays  in  the  town  unless  his  journey  was 
strictly  one  of  business.  From  fifty  to  a  hundred  schoon 
ers  and  three  steamers  ply  among  the  islands.  The  trade 
winds  blow  regularly,  and  the  time  of  making  a  trip  can  be 
reckoned  pretty  exactly. 


CLIMATE. 


A  description  of  the  climate  of  Oahu,  will  mainly 
suffice  for  the  whole  group  of  islands,  situate,  as  it  is,  just 
south  of  the  tropic  of  Cancer,  and  nearly  parallel  in  lati 
tude  with  Mazatlan  on  this  coast,  and  Canton  on  the  coast 
of  China.  It  will  easily  be  understood  how  the  dry  heat 
that  generally  prevails  in  these  two  last-named  places  is>  in 
the  case  of  Honolulu,  tempered  by  the  northeast  trades, 
which  blow  steadily  for  nine  months  in  the  year,  and  by 
the  ocean-bred  rains  that  these  beneficent  breezes  bring 
with  them.  It  is  only  at  Hawaii  that,  on  account  of  its 
lofty  mountains,  the  trade  wind  is  intercepted,  and  its  want 
is  supplied  by  a  morning  and  evening  sea-breeze.  Nothing 
can  be  more  delicious  than  early  morning  and  evening  in 
these  happy  islands  ;  perchance  a  heavy  rain  has  passed 
over  the  country  during  the  night,  and  as  you  sally  forth 
the  air  is  fresh  and  laden  with  perfume,  while  the  rain 
drops,  glistening  in  the  rising  sun,  tremble  on  the  delicate 


I 

CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  343 

mimosa  leaves  of  the  tamarind  tree,  or  roll  slowly  into  the 
deep  recesses  of  the  palms ;  the  dry,  light  soil  soon  drinks 
up  all  trace  of  the  storm,  and  as  the  sun  shines  with  gather 
ing  force,  you  can  only  note  its  life-giving  influence  in  the 
greater  glisten  of  the  orange-leaf  and  the  intenser  purity 
and  fragrance  of  its  blossom.  The  native  lies  idly  under 
the  shade  of  the  banana-tree,  or  indulges  in  the  more  excit 
ing  game  of  breasting  the  surf  outside  the  coral  reef,  in  the, 
to  a  stranger,  apparently  hazardous  race  where  the  combat 
ants  ride  upon  the  breakers,  with  no  other  support  than  a 
small  piece  of  board,  and  men  and  women  join,  with  no 
other  clothing  than  the  salt  water.  To  return  to  the  climate. 
From  carefully  prepared  meteorological  tables,  we  learn 
that  the  average  temperature  of  Honolulu  is,  at  sunrise,  73 
degrees  Fahrenheit;  from  noon  to  two  p.  M.,  which  is 
always  the  hottest  time,  from  78  to  79  degrees  Fahrenheit ; 
and  at  ten  p.  M.,  from  74  to  75  degrees;  after  that  time,  the 
radiation  of  heat  sets  in,  and  in  clear  weather  a  gentle  dew 
falls.  The  average  temperature  at  the  mountainous  regions 
of  the  interior,  at  an  elevation  of  4,000  feet,  ranges  from  48 
to  64  degrees  Fahrenheit.  In  Hawaii,  where  the  mountains 
rise  to  12,000  feet  and  upward,  of  course  this  observation 
does  not  apply ;  but  at  Kanai,  the  most  northerly  of  the 
islands,  snow  and  hail  fall  during  the  winter  months,  at 
an  altitude  of  4, 000  feet;  but  this  is  on  the  most  exposed 
side  of  the  island.  No  snow  falls  on  Oahu,  but  at  Maui, 
only  a  few  hours'  sail  off,  and  within  sight,  the  temperature 
varies,  at  an  elevation  of  3,000  feet,  from  40  to  75  degrees  of 
Fahrenheit,  on  account  of  the  dampness  and  consequent 
rapid  evaporation  of  moisture  in  this  locality.  June  and 
July  have  the  highest  range  of  temperature  in  these  islands  ; 
but  in  no  instance  has  the  change  of  temperature  in  a  single 
day  been  more  than  15  degrees,  and  that  difference  is  of 
rare  occurrence.  During  the  existence  of  the  trades  the 
temperature  is  very  even ;  these  winds  sometimes  blow 
with  considerable  force,  especially  along  the  ravines  and 
steep  defiles  on  the  windward  side,  and  are  looked  upon  as 
healthy,  on  account  of  their  carrying  off  the  miasma  and 
exhalations  from  the  stagnant  pools  of  the  interior.  The 


344  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

islands  are  not  in  the  hurricane  latitude,  and  few  thunder 
storms  occur. 


ADVANTAGES    TO    INVALIDS. 


No  part  of  the  world  offers  such  inducements  for  the  sick 
or  valetudinarian  as  these  Hawaiian  Islands  ;  they  embrace 
that  certain  even  point  of  temperature  which  is  said  to  be 
conducive  to  longevity ;  its  inhabitants  bear  out  the  asser 
tion  in  their  splendid  physical  devolopment,  and  when  not 
worn  into  premature  old  age  by  debauchery,  in  their  ex 
treme  longevity.  To  those  frames  exhausted  by  excessive 
toil  in  the  mines,  to  whom  winter  in  California  gives  a 
recess  from  toil  without  a  relief  from  pain,  we  won  Id  say 
go  and  recruit  your  strength  and  get  rid  of  your  rheumatic 
pains,  during  the  idle  winter  months,  in  the  healing  atmos 
phere  of  these  semi-tropical  regions ;  go  where  every 
indrawn  breath  is  soothing  and  healing,  arid  where  the 
ocean  waves  bring  health  and  reinvigoration  as  you  plunge 
into  their  refreshing  waters  ;  go  where  the  noonday  heat  is 
tempered  by  the  spice-laden  breeze  as  it  steals  through  the 
myrtle  grove,  or  rustles  through  the  bamboo  brake,  or 
sweeps  over  the  fields  of  sugar-cane,  or  quivers  in  the 
fronds  of  the  tree  fern,  or  casts  shadows  on  the  mountain- 
path  as  the  Urge  banana  leaves  wave  to  and  fro.  Go,  you 
hypochondriac  !  and  in  the  beauty  of  nature  find  calm  for 
your  despairing  spirit.  Go,  victim  of  consumption,  and  if 
the  disease  has  laid  too  strong  a  hand  upon  you  to  allow  a 
cure,  at  least  you  will  find  a  solace  from  pain  and  the  weari 
ness  of  long  suffering.  But  above  all,  go  ye  healthy  and 
strong  ones,  and  climb  to  the  top  of  those  burning  moun 
tains  ;  look  upon  the  greatest  active  volcano  in  the  world, 
at  Hawaii ;  see,  in  the  same  island,  the  giant  craters  of  those 
either  slumbering  or  extinct ;  stand  where  the  solitude  is 
divided  between  yourself  and  the  great  sea-eagle  as  he  sails 
over  your  head,  and  where  your  way  through  the  dense 
forest  is  ever  enlivened  by  the  song  of  strange  birds,  or  the 
sight  of  hitherto  unknown  plants,  and  trees  and  flowers  ; 
where  the  orchids  lurk  in  the  moist,  warm  ravines,  and  the 
parasites  overtop  the  loftiest  trees  and  twine  themselves 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  345 

\ 

from  one  monarch  of  the  forest  to  the  other,  checking  their 
growth,  feeding  on  their  sap,  and  finally  conquering  their 
very  lives. 

COMMERCIAL    STATISTICS    OP    HONOLULU. 

Nothing  exemplifies  more  the  growing  importance  and 
prosperity  of  the  islands  than  the  yearly  increase  of  the 
exports  and  imports  from  the  ports  of  Honolulu  and  Hilo, 
chiefly  from  the  former  of  later  years.  The  average  value 
of  the  imports  for  the  four  years  ending  1853,  was  81,225, 175, 
or  about  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars,  and  the  average 
value  of  foreign  and  domestic  exports  was  $609,862.  The 
imports  for  the  year  1854  were  nearly  a  million  and  a  half 
of  dollars,  and  the  exports  slightly  less  than  the  average  of 
the  four  preceding  years.  Of  the  imports  in  1854,  $503,506 
were  from  Atlantic  ports,  and  $348,915  from  ports  belong 
ing  to  the  United  States  in  the  Pacific,  that  is  from  San 
Francisco.  The  exports  for  1854  were  as  follows  :  Sugar, 
581,777  pounds  ;  sirup,  28,513  gallons  ;  molasses,  41^879 
gallons;  salt,  5,401  barrels;  coffee,  91,000  pounds;  hides, 
3,006;  goatskins,  16,890;  tallow,  15,405  pounds;  arrow 
root,  6,166  pounds.  The  imports  for  1857  amounted  to 
$1,151,422,  and  the  exports  $670,824,  being  a  total  amount 
of  $1,822,246,  of  which  $1,169,110  were  from  United  States 
ports. 

About  this  time  a  considerable  trade  commenced  to 
spring  up  between  Washington  Territory  and  the  Sandwich 
islands,  carrying  sugar,  coffee,  molasses,  salt  provisions,  as 
well  as  foreign  merchandise,  and  receiving  in  return  lum 
ber,  shingles,  shiptimber,  spars,  salmon,  coal,  &c.,  to  the 
great  detriment  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  and  Van 
couver  Isle,  who  had  hitherto  enjoyed  a  monopoly  of  that 
trade.  Oranges  also  found  a  staple  article  of  export  to  San 
Francisco,  and  in  1856  the  number  shipped  was  one  hun 
dred  and  seventy-five  thousand. 

We  will  now  refer  to  the  trade  with  the  Sandwich  Islands 
for  the  past  year.  The  imports  of  coffee,  which  in  1863 
had  amounted  to  68,085  pounds,  fell  off  in  1864  to  14,721 


346  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

pounds,  arising  chiefly  from  the  increased  duty  on  this 
article  in  the  latter,  and  the  advices  of  immense  arrivals 
from  Rio  and  Manilla,  in  anticipation  of  this  increase.  In 
molasses  arid  sirup  the  imports,  which  in  1863  were  60, 305 
gallons,  amounted  in  1864  to  355,390  gallons.  Pulu  had 
gradually  come  into  use  in  the  San  Francisco  market,  and  the 
importations  for  the  three  last  years  have  "been  from  eight 
to  nine  thousand  bales.  The  Hawaiian  rice  is  of  superior 
quality,  and  commands  nearly  three  cents  a  pound  higher 
than  No.  1  China  ;  at  the  close  of  the  year  Sandwich  Island 
table  rice  sold  for  twelve  cents  a  pound.  Of  sugar  the  im 
ports  from  the  Islands  amounted  to  7,022,922  pounds,  with 
a  marked  improvement  in  its  quality.  It  was  favorably 
taken  for  the  raw  grades  of  grocers'  sugars  in  1864,  and  not 
as  formerly  sent  to  the  distillery.  The  proximity  of  the 
Islands,  the  luxuriant  growth  of  the  cane,  and  the  large 
yield  with  no  tax  of  exchange  against  it,  and  a  light  insur 
ance  account,  which  will  be  less  if  the  agency  of  steam 
navigation  is  employed  in  carrying,  will  enable  the  Islands 
to  supply  us  with  sugar  at  a  lower  rate  than  any  other 
country,  particularly  when  the  Government  schemes  of 
labor  emigration  is  carried  out ;  as  it  is,  the  imports  of  raw 
sugar  from  Honolulu  in  1864  were  one-fourth  of  the  whole 
imports  into  San  Francisco  for  that  year.  The  brand  of 
James  McKee  is  the  favorite  mark  in  the  market.  This 
name  will  be  well  remembered  by  his  munificent  donation 
of  sugar  to  the  Sanitary  Commission.  The  receipts  of 
wool  for  1864  were  29,200  pounds,  at  an  average  price  of 
18  to  20  cents  per  pound.  The  exports  to  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  show  a  considerable  increase.  In  1862  they  were 
about  $300,000,  in  1863,  $350,000;  but  in  1864  they  footed 
up  $660,000,  being  more  than  the  two  previous  years  to 
gether.  The  arrivals  from  Pacific  islands  were,  in  the 
three  previous  years  to  1864,  about  9,500  tons  a  year,  but 
in  that  latter  year  were  17,700  tons,  and  the  departures  in 
those  three  first-mentioned  years  about  10,000  tons  a  year  ; 
whereas  in  1864,  they  were  21,000  tons.  The  following  are 
the  only  ports  of  entry  in  the  Sandwich  Islands  :  in  Oahu, 
Honolulu ;  in  Maui,  Lahaina ;  in  Hawaii,  Hilo,  Keala- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  347 

keakua  (where  Captain  Cook  was  killed),  and  Kawaihae  ; 
in  Kauai,  Waimea  and  Hanalei. 

Honolulu  is  destined  to  be  the  coal  depot  for  the  steamers 
that  will  eventually  run  from  this  port  to  Japan  and  China. 
Situated  as  it  is,  nearly  on  a  parallel  of  latitude  with  Canton, 
at  a  distance  from  it  of  rather  more  than  four  thousand 
miles,  and  from  the  Japanese  Islands  of  about  three  thou 
sand  five  hundred,  it  is  geographically  the  only  location 
where  coal,  w^ater,  fresh  meats  and  vegetables  can  be  pro 
cured  during  the  trip  from  San  Francisco  to  China. 

Having  said  thus  much  of  Honolulu  and  its  geogrphical 
importance,  we  will  now  resume  our  description  of  the 
several  islands  in  the  Hawaiian  group,  the  next  in  order 
being 

MOLOKAI, 

Which  is  not  of  great  importance,  being  chiefly  benefited 
by  its  proximity  to  Oahu.  Its  population  is  nearly  three 
thousand,  and  its  sheep  pastures  are  good,  but  since  1840 
there  has  been  a  great  exodus  of  her  people  in  consequence 
of  the  attractions  of  the  neighboring  isle.  At  that  date  the 
population  was  between  five  and  six  thousand  souls.  Kal- 
uaha,  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  island,  is  a  lovely  spot ;  and 
there  are  some  good  coffee  plantations  on  the  island.  Mol- 
okai  was  for  some  time  a  troublesome  neighbor  to  Oahu, 
but,  after  having  rebelled  twice,  was  finally  conquered  by 
Kamehameha  the  First.  The  second  island  in  size  and  the 
third  of  importance  in  the  group  is 

MAUI. 

• 

This  island  is  of  a  peculiar  shape,  with  a  deep  indenta 
tion  near  its  center.  On  the  eastern  side  it  forms  a  large 
bay,  at  the  center  of  which  lies  the  town  of  Wailuka, 
which  is  beautifully  situated  at  the  foot  of  an  extinct  vol 
cano,  with  one  side  of  its  crater  exposed,  leaving  a  deep 
perpendicular  cliff  covered  with  vegetation,  and  small 
streams  trickling  down  its  sides ;  it  reminds  one  of  an 
immense  amphitheater.  The  small  river  that  flows  from  it 
to  the  sea,  has  lava  for  its  bed  ;  and  huge  fragments  of  time 


348  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

worn  rock  that  liave  passed  through  the  fire,  obstructing 
here  and  there  its  channel — for  the  pure  water  fiows  now 
where  once  the  fiery  torrent  poured  forth  in  its  destructive 
path  to  the  ocean.  On  the  other  subdivision  of  the  island, 
is  the  famous  Manna  Halrakala,  the  largest  and  most  per 
fect  crater  in  the  world.  It  is  oblong  in  shape,  being 
twelve  miles  by  eight,  and  between  two  and  three  thousand 
feet  deep.  The  volcanic  force  has  long  ceased  in  this  moun 
tain,  and  a  dense  forest  vegetation  covers  its  sides  and  fills 
its  crater.  A  rising  port  in  this  island  is  Lahaina,  which  is 
situated  on  the  flats  near  the  sea-shore.  The  soil  is  very 
rich,  and  considerable  produce  is  sent  in  droguers  or 
schooners  to  Honolulu,  for  shipment  to  this  port,  It  is 
now,  and  was  formerly  still  more,  resorted  to  by  whaling 
ships  ;  but  Honolulu  offers  more  inducements,  and  now  the 
inhabitants  of  Lahaina  find  it  more  profitable  to  cultivate 
the  sugar-cane,  as  they  can  rattoon  for  seven  or  eight  years 
in  their  rich  soil. 

HAWAII. 

We  now  come  to  the  largest,  and  to  the  geologist  or  trav 
eler,  the  most  interesting  of  the  Sandwich  Islands.  The 
first  known,  the  land  whence  sprang  the  kings  of  the  whole 
group,  the  ancient  seat  of  government,  having  an  area  twice 
as  large  as  the  whole  of  the  other  islands  together ;  pos 
sessing  mountains  whose  summits  overpass  the  line  of  per 
petual  snow,  with  the  largest  explored  active  volcano  in 
the  world,  Hawaii  may  justly  be  entitled  to  pre-eminence 
in  point  of  attraction,  and  to  be  alone  worthy  of  a  visit 
from  distant  shores.  There  is  hardly  one  among  us  who 
has  not  as  a  child  read  with  deep  interest  the  history  of 
Captain  Cook' s  voyages,  of  his  delight  at  discovering  these 
fertile  islands,  of  his  surprise  at  the  superior  intelligence 
of  the  islanders,  and  of  his  melancholy  death,  mainly,  as 
we  now  think,  through  his  own  imprudence  and  the  out 
rageous  reckless  manner  in  which  his  men  treated  the 
natives.  They  were  not  only  well  disposed  toward  their 
visitors,  but  feared  them  as  superior  beings  and  worshiped 
their  chief  as  a  god ;  they  brought  them  flesh,  fruit,  and 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  349 

water,  denied  nothing  oven  to  their  lustful  requirements, 
and  were  treated  with  an  overbearing  cruelty  that  finally 
roused  the  spirit  of  their  chiefs,  and  caused  them  to  drive 
the  strangers  from  among  them.  It  was  only  when  the 
natives  discovered  that  the  bright-eyed  white  man  had  all 
their  humanity,  with  less  than  their  physical  strength,  that 
like  ancient  idolaters  when  they  found  that  their  image  was 
but  clay,  they  despised  in  proportion  as  they  had  pre 
viously  adored,  and  the  disaster  of  Kealakeakua  Bay  was 
the  consequence  of  their  discovery. 

Every  thing  about  Hawaii  is  on  a  grand  scale.  Their 
chiefs  were  marvels  of  strength  and  manly  beauty,  their 
height  was  almost  always  more  than  six  feet,  and  frequently 
six  feet  and  a  half.  As  we  formerly  remarked,  the  climate 
is  peculiarly  favorable  to  the  development  of  physical 
vigor.  There  appears  to  have  been  two  distinct  races  of 
men  on  these  islands,  one  a  smaller  mongolian  type.  These 
were  treated  as  slaves,  and  looked  upon  as  inferior ;  the 
other,  a  mixture  of  Malay  and  Caucasian,  Avith  high  fore 
head  and  fine  aquiline  features,  the  hair  dark  and  wav}^, 
and  slight  beard,  bearing  very  erect  and  manly.  The  color 
of  their  skin  was  darker  than  of  most  nations  so  near  the 
temperate  zone,  but  this  may  have  arisen  from  the  scanti 
ness  of  their  clothing  and  constant  out-door  exercise.  Such 
were  the  men  that  Cook  found  on  Hawaii. 

Exactly  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  island  from  Keala 
keakua  Bay  is  the  harbor  and  town  of  Hilo,  and  thither  we 
will  turn,  as  it  is  there  that  the  steamer  deposits  us  fr  jm 
Honolulu,  and  also,  it  is  the  ancient  capital  of  the  Sandwich 
Islands.  The  propeller  Kilanea,  called  after  the  burning 
mountain,  sails  every  ten  days  from  Honolulu,  touches  at 
Lahaina  and  other  places  in  the  island  of  Maui,  arid  thence 
proceeds  to  different  towns  all  around  Hawaii,  finally  bring 
ing  up  at  Ililo.  This  is  a  delightful  excursion,  as  the  owners 
of  the  boat  allow  the  passengers  to  leave  her,  and  take  her 
up  again  at  any  point  during  the  trip.  You  approach  the 
island  by  the  westerly  side,  usually  making  Kawaihae. 
As  you  come  within  sight  of  land,  the  three  great  moun 
tains  rise  before  you :  Mauna  Kea,  the  highest  and  most 


350  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

northerly,  about  14,000  feet  from  the  sea  level ;  Mauna 
Hualalai,  about  the  middle  of  the  island,  10,000  feet,  and 
Mauna  Lou,  the  most  southerly  of  the  three,  13,700  feet 
high.  The  two  former  mountains  are  extinct  volcanoes  ; 
the  latter  is  but  dormant,  and  at  times  gives  notice  of  the 
fires  slumbering  below.  You  can  not  see  Kilauea,  the  real 
volcano,  from  this  side  of  the  island,  and  can  hardly  realize 
the  great  height  of  those  you  do,  so  gradually  do  they  slope 
upward  from  the  water's  edge.  For  this  reason  the  ascent 
of  the  mountains  is  practicable  on  horseback.  The  steamer 
puts  into  Kealakeakua  Bay,  calling,  if  necessary,  at  Kailua, 
and  stays  some  time,  taking  in  wood  and  water;  after 
which  it  goes  back  again  to  the  north,  rounding  Kohala 
Point,  and  skirts  the  shore  until  you  make  the  entrance  to 
the  Bay  of  Hilo.  The  sail  along  the  coast  on  a  fine  day  is 
very  charming,  and  reminds  the  traveler  of  the  view  along 
the  Island  of  Madeira,  from  the  Funehal  to  the  Desertas  ; 
bold  cliffs,  cleft  with  ravines,  whose  precipitous  sides  shut 
in  green  valleys,  ending  in  sheltered  bays,  where  you  see 
little  white  villages  and  the  evidences  of  cultivation,  and 
tiny  cascades,  that  at  the  distance  appear  like  motionless 
threads  of  light ;  above  them  all,  far  in  the  interior,  you 
see  the  mists  driving  over  the  great  hills,  carried  along  by 
the  trade  winds  ;  but  you  feel  no  air  where  you  are,  for  the 
great  volcanic  wall  lifts  its  huge  barrier  and  screens  you 
from  the  blast ;  the  mountains  attract  the  moisture  evapor 
ating  from  the  Pacific,  and  drain  the  clouds  of  all  their  rain 
to  feed  their  reservoirs  of  snow,  which  are  ever  trickling 
under  the  sun's  rays  into  the  streamlets  that  water  the 
plains  below. 

You  reach  Hilo,  and,  having  been  ducked  by  the 
breakers  as  you  are  carried  on  shore  by  the  stout  Hawai- 
ians,  you  find  comfortable  quarters,  and  start  to  find  horses 
and  guides,  or  to  form  a  party  to  visit  the  volcano.  But 
before  you  start,  look  at  the  lovely  view  from  the  harbor  of 
the  town.  It  is  the  green  side  of  the  island,  and  from  the 
top  of  the  mountains  in  the  distance  to  the  plains  at  their 
feet,  all  is  a  succession  of  evergreen  forests  of  vast  extent, 
and  abounding  with  large  and  valuable  timber,  succeeded 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  351 

by  fertile  plains,  where  the  sugar-cane  grows  well,  and  is 
being  abundantly  cultivated.  On  the  shore  you  see  the 
inhabitants  fishing  or  bathing,  or  enjoying  themselves  by 
being  borne  at  a  thundering  pace  on  the  top  of  the  surf, 
darting  away  from  the  beach  as  they  appear  about  to  be 
dashed  upon  it. 

The  next  day  we  suppose  you  start  for  the  Kilauea.  The 
first  part  of  your  journey  is  over,  the  savannahs,  already 
spoken  of,  where  you  see  the  natives  cultivating  what  they 
call  the  upland  taro,  which,  however,  is  not  so  good  nor 
reliable  as  the  lowland  taro,  grown  where  there  is  abund 
ance  of  water.  You  then  enter  upon  the  forest  and  district 
of  tree  ferns,  and  emerge  upon  a  wilder  scene,  as  you 
approach  the  first  crater,  which  is  about  four  or  five  thou 
sand  feet  above  the  level  of  Hilo.  Here  you  will  find  your 
road  composed  of  gravel,  lava  and  scoria,  and  very  difficult 
to  travel  upon,  from  the  soft  and  broken  nature  of  the 
ground  ;  you  are,  however,  soon  rewarded,  for  you  ap 
proach,  by  a  gradual  ascent,  the  wall  of  the  crater.  There 
is  a  house  near  the  brink,  where  you  can  stop  and  refresh 
yourself  prior  to  the  descent  of  the  crater.  The  best  point 
of  departure  for  the  descent  is  near  this  grass  house,  where 
you  leave  your  horse.  You  then  go  for  about  five  hundred 
yards,  and  stand  on  the  brink  of  the-  great  caldron,  for, 
unless  during  great  eruptions,  this  is  the  nearest  descriptive 
approach  to  the  mass  of  molten,  burning,  seething,  fretting, 
bubbling,  glowing  matter  that  is  spread  before  you.  You 
walk  carefully,  and  with  fearful  steps,  across  this  agitated 
mass,  that  threatens  to  burst  forth  •  into  violence  as  you 
tread ;  you  pass  by  miniature  volcanoes,  where  you  can 
study  the  nature  of  the  great  overflow  ;  here  you  see  jets 
of  steam  escaping,  and  there  a  semi-fiuid,  semi-opaque  lava, 
slowly  bubbling,  as  though  resisting  the  plutonic  force  ; 
presently  you  are  startled  with  a  sound  like  a  cannon,  and 
see  a  puff  of  vapor  rising  like  an  inverted  cone.  At  last 
you  come  to  the  great  rent  of  1859,  where  you  see  the  sub 
terranean  fires,  not  bright,  but  of  a  dull,  heavy  red  color, 
as  though  the  burning  matter  were  too  ponderous  to  burn 
brightly,  and  not  sufficiently  igneous  to  be  incandescent ;  it 


352  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

is  more  in  the  nature  of  a  vitreous  matter,  caused  by  the 
agency  of  intense  subterranean  fire,  than  of  any  thing  burn 
ing  by  itself,  or  by  force  of  its  own  combustive  nature. 
Now  and  then  it  labors  as  though  in  the  throes  of  rebellious 
convulsion  ;  at  such  times  the  heaving  mass  of  dull  liquid 
fire  rises  up  to  the  edge  of  the  great  chasm,  and  then  sinks 
sullenly  down,  as  if  exhausted  by  the  strife  with  the 
greater  power  below. 

But  though  reluctant  to  burn,  and  not  feeding  its  own 
fires,  woe  to  the  substance,  however  apparently  durable, 
that  comes  within  its  reach  ;  woe  to  the  land  when  by  a 
supernatural  effort,  it  passes  the  brink  of  the  calcined  preci 
pice  that  forms  its  natural  prison.  Such  happened  in  the 
last  great  overflow ;  first,  there  were  repeated  shocks  of 
earthquakes,  then  a  shower  of  stones  was  cast  hundreds  of 
feet  into  the  air  ;  at  length  the  molten  mass  lazily  rolled 
over  one  side  of  the  crater,  and  wearing  itself  a  gap  by  the 
force  of  its  continuous  stream,  gradually  increased  in  vol 
ume,  and  set  forth  in  its  work  of  desolation,  to  the  sea. 
The  great  hard  forest  woods  yielded  like  tinder  ;  the  great 
Koa,  which  turns  the  edge  of  the  woodman's  ax,  disap 
peared  as  if  by  magic  ;  the  Ohias  shrank  and  shriveled  at 
the  mere  breath  of  the  advancing  stream.  At  length  the 
stream  of  lava  came  to  the  banks  of  a  river  which  was 
winding  its  peaceful  way  to  fertilize  the  plains,  ere  it  gave 
its  tribute  to  the  ocean  ;  the  river  was  deep,  and  its  flow  of 
water  unceasing.  For  three  days  did  the  lava  stream  do 
battle  with  the  snow- fed  river  ;  for  three  days  a  column  of 
steam  and  sulphurous  smoke  was  borne  upon  the  wind  to 
the  fearful  inhabitants  of  the  plain  ;  at  the  third  day,  the 
accumulation  of  obstructed  lava  became  so  great  that  a 
truce  to  the  warfare  was  completed  ;  the  melted  stream 
flowed  over  the  mass  hardened  by  the  action  of  the  water, 
and  the  river,  exulting  in  its  victory,  flowed  under  a  natural 
bridge,  in  a  stream  of  boiling  water.  A  mile  and  a  half 
below  this  phenomenon,  a  canoe  upset  and  an  unfortunate 
native  was  literally  boiled  alive.  The  lava  stream  at  length 
reached  the  sea ;  its  volume  lessened  by  cooling  and 
being  deposited  in  its  course  ;  but  the  fiery  track  remains 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  353 

to  this  day,  and  the  shuddering  aboriginal  tells  you  of  the 
wrath  of  the  goddess  Pele,  as  evinced  by  the  blasting  track 
of  vengeance.  The  track  of  this  eruption  is  about  seven 
miles  from  Hilo,  toward  the  south.  The  ascent  of  the  great 
mountains  is  made  more  easily  from  Kailua,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  island.  It  can  easily  be  made  on  horseback, 
but  the  natives  do  not  like  to  face  the  snow.  The  only 
wild  animals  are  wild  cattle,  which  are  numerous  in  the 
highlands.  The  natives  go  out  in  parties  to  lasso  them  for 
food ;  they  are  generally  called  royal  property,  but  that 
does  not  prevent  poaching 

The  great  beauty  of  Hawaii  is  the  natural,  quiet,  lawn-like 
character  of  its  low  lands  contrasted  with  the  fierce  antago 
nistic  nature  of  its  high  lands  ;  and  this  calm  of  the  former 
would  appear  to  have  exercised  its  influence  over  its  native 
inhabitants — simple  in  their  habits,  confiding  in  their  dis 
positions,  indolent  from  the  very  profuseness  of  their  pro 
lific  isle — their  only  active  exercise  being  either  in  or  on 
their  much-loved  waters,  they  indeed  realize  the  wish  of 
the  poet — 

"  Of  hearts  which  languish  for  some  sunny  isle 
Where  summer  years  and  summer  women  smile, 
Who,  half  uncivilized,  prefer  the  cave 
Of  some  soft  savage,  to  the  uncertain  wave ; 
The  gushing  fruits  that  nature  gave  untilled  ; 
The  wood  without  a  path,  but  where  they  willed ; 
The  field  o'er  which,  promiscuous  plenty  poured 
Her  horn — the  equal  land  without  a  lord  ; 
The  earth,  whose  mine  was  on  its  face  untold ; 
The  glowing  sun  and  produce  all  its  gold  ; 
The  freedom  which  can  call  each  grot  a  home ; 
The  general  garden  where  all  steps  may  roam. 
Where  nature  owns  a  nation/  as  her  child, 
Exulting  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  wild. 
Their  shells,  their  fruits,  the  only  wealth  they  knew ; 
Their  unexploring  navy,  the  canoe  ; 
Their  sport,  the  dashing  breakers  and  the  chase ; 
Their  strangest  sight,  a  European  face. 

Such  was  the  country,  and  such  is  the  country  still.     The 

23 


354  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

kindly  greeting,  the  "Aloha,"  is  for  every  stranger  who 
does  not  insult  them.  They  rejoice  when  he  admires  their 
much-loved  island  ;  they  long  to  show  him  the 

"  Quiet  nooks  where  contemplation  dwells ; 
Where  silence,  undisturbed,  may  reign  alone, 
So  bright,  so  calm,  so  still." 

S.  F.  News  Letter,  Dec.,  1865. 


EAKLY    CALIFORNIA    CITIES. 


ARLY  in  the  year  1850,  Dr.  Robert  Semple 
commenced  "building  a  steamboat  at  Benicia, 
to  run  from  Sacramento  to  Colusa,  Most  of 
the  timbers  were  gotten  out  in  Contra  Costa 
County,  and  the  sawed  lumber  used  was 
Oregon  pine.  At  that  time,  no  one  engine  could  be 
procured  in  the  State  of  sufficient  power  to  propel  the 
boat,  and  no  two  of  the  same  capacity  were  to  be  had. 
The  project  was  undertaken  of  making  two  different  kinds 
of  engines,  of  different  power  and  stroke,  work  in  the  same 
boat.  She  was  made  ready  for  trial  about  the  last  of  June, 
but  she  was  not  a  success.  She  made  one  trip,  was  taken 
to  San  Francisco,  the  engines  taken  out,  and  the  hull,  which 
cost  over  $30,000,  was  eaten  up  by  the  worms.  It  was, 
we  believe,  on  the  second  day  of  July  that  this  steamer — 
christened  Colusa — left  Benicia,  headed  for  the  contemplated 
city  of  Colusa.  The  writer  of  this,  then  in  his  eighteenth 
year,  was  on  board.  We  spent  the  Fourth  of  July  in 
Sacramento,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  fifth  left  for  this 
place.  Fremont  and  Yernon  were  both  "cities"  then; 
and  there  were  many  other  cities  on  the  Upper  Sacramento, 
but  no  houses.  The  Colusa  was  the  first  steamboat  that 
had  attempted  to  ascend  the  Sacramento  in  low  water.  Le 
petit  steamer  "Jack  Hays"  had  made  a  trip  to  about  as  far 
as  where  Red  Bluff  now  stands,  during  the  winter.  There 
was  a  city  there  then,  and  it  had  a  romantic  name  which 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  355 

we  have  now  forgotten.  But  it  is  all  in  ruins  now,  and  not  a 
trace  of  it  is  left.  There  had  been  two  or  three  other  little 
boats  up  the  river,  to  the  different  cities,  during  the  winter, 
but  we  encountered  first  the  snags  of  the  Sacramento. 
Colonel  Semple  had  been  up  the  river  during  the  high 
water  of  the  spring  of  '50,  and  located  the  city  of  Colusa 
at  a  point  about  seven  miles  above  here.  That  was  our 
destination.  But  it  took  the  boat  some  seven  days,  with 
the  assistance  of  innumerable  Indians,  to  reach  there.  At 
Mead's  we  got  on  a  sand-bar,  and  in  backing  around  we 
broke  the  "gearing"  of  one  of  the  engines,  and  then  the 
boat  had  to  make  the  balance  of  the  way  up,  and  all  her 
return  trip,  with  one  wheel. 

Getting  tired  of  so  slow  a  process,  and  being  desirous  of 
seeing  the  city  that  was  to  be  so  famous,  we  landed  on  the 
east  side  of  the  river,  and  getting  an  Indian  for  a  guide,  we 
struck  out  on  foot  for  the  city.  The  Indians  then  always 
traveled  in  a  kind  of  dog-trot,  and  as  soon  as  we  landed,  our 
guide  struck  it  up.  We  followed  in  silence  for  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile,  our  guide  keeping  about  twenty  or  thirty  paces  in 
advance  of  us.  We  hallooed  at  him  to  hold  up,  but  he 
thought  we  wanted  him  to  go  faster,  and  he  was  equal  to 
the  task.  We  were  obliged  to  keep  up,  for  it  was  the 
wildest  country  we  had  ever  seen.  Through  thick  timber 
and  the  undergrowth  of  pea-vine,  wild  oats,  brush,  and 
every  imaginable  thing,  we  went,  so  thick  that  we  won 
dered  that  the  Indians  had  ever  been  able  to  make  a  path 
through  it.  But  we  had  no  time  either  for  observation  or 
reflection.  On  and  on  through  that  dense  wood  our  guide 
" trotted."  We  have  a  distaste  for  a  "trot"  until  now. 
We  thought  we  had  trotted  over  ten  miles — and  have  seen 
since  that  it  was  aboiit  four — when  our  guide  stopped.  He 
was  opposite  the  "  city,"  but  there  was  no  path  into  it.  He 
made  signs  that  we  would  have  to  break  through  the 
thicket.  He  was  entirely  naked,  but  he  took  the  lead, 
tearing  through  brusli  and  briar  at  a  rate  perfectly  aston 
ishing,  but  he  could  not  trot — we  had  him  there.  We  could 
follow  as  fast  as  he  could  break  the  road.  It  was  about  a 
half  mile  from  the  path  to  the  river,  and,  although  he  had 


356  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

no  clothes  whatever,  and  took  the  lead,  we  were  scratched 
four  times  as  much  as  he.  The  city  afforded  no  ferry,  and 
our  only  alternative  was  to  swim.  The  Indian  proposed, 
by  signs,  to  carry  our  clothes  across  on  his  head ;  we  ac 
cepted  the  offer,  and,  for  the  first  time,  we  swam  the  Sacra 
mento.  Immediately  on  our  arrival  we  took  the  census  of 
the  city,  and  found  the  inhabitants  to  number  000,001. 
Robert  Parkhill,  formerly  of  Florida,  was  the  principal 
man  of  the  place,  and  to  him  we  introduced  ourself.  He 
fried  us  a  slice  of  pork  and  a  slapjack,  and,  after  our  trot, 
we  relished  it  hugely. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  days  the  boat  arrived,  discharged 
her  cargo,  and  left.  Parkhill  left ;  but  the  city  had  greatly 
increased  in  population.  The  census  now  stood  000,003. 
The  principal  men  of  the  place  were : — C.  D.  Semple,  pro 
prietor  of  the  city  and  merchant ;  William  S.  Green,  junior 
partner,  and  E.  Hicks,  "master  builder."  After  consulta 
tion,  it  was  determined  to  move  the  whole  city  to  ' '  Salmon 
Bend."  Acting  upon  this,  a  wagon  and  a  yoke  of  cattle 
were  purchased.  The  lumber  was  first  put  aboard,  and  the 
colonel  and  the  carpenter  left.  Having  a  large  stock  of 
goods  lying  around  under  the  trees,  we  had  to  remain.  The 
colonel  and  Charley,  an  Indian  boy  of  royal  blood,  were 
about  three  weeks  in  completing  the  house.  We  had  one 
set  of  camping  utensils,  and  we  had  to  divide  them.  We 
had  to  bake  bread  and  fry  pork  in  a  tin  plate,  yet  we  kept 
a  very  extensive  hotel.  People  were  all  the  time  asking  for 
meals,  and  did  not  think  of  grumbling  at  one  dollar  for  a 
biscuit  that  would  serve  for  a  cannon  ball,  arid  a  slice  of 
rusty,  fat  pork. 

When  the  goods  were  hauled  we  came  down,  and  the 
feat  of  moving  the  city  was  accomplished. — Cor.  Colusa 
Sun. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  357 


A    MODEL    REPORT. 

(HE  subjoined  report  by  Professor  Ausgespielt, 
"M.  E.,"  speaks  for  itself,  and  will  be  read 
with  lively  interest.  Indeed,  apart  from  its 
scientific  "outcroppings,"  its  brevity  will  com 
mend  it: — "In  accordance  with  your  request 
per  telegraph,  I  have  made  a  scientific  exam 
ination  of  the  Nemos  Company's  ledges,  and  herewith  send 
you  such  facts  as  I  have  collected,  together  with  a  brief 
statement  of  my  peculiar  theory  regarding  the  geological 
and  mineral ogical  features  of  your  very  remarkable  mines. 
In  passing,  I  can  not  omit  to  express  my  regret  that,  in  their 
present  undeveloped  state,  I  am  not  able  to  send  you  more 
details.  The  course  of  the  Elephant — the  principal  ledge  of 
the  group— is  K".  20  E.  S.  E.,  by  W.  125  N.  The  Fedge  is 
sixty  feet  wide,  and  crops  out  boldly  for  fifteen  feet ;  and,  in 
my  judgment,  it  would  crop  out  a  great  deal  more  but  for 
the  fact  that  its  geology  presents  an  astounding  idiosyncracy , 
viz.,  the  primary  formation  having  united  igneously  with 
the  porphyritic  sandstone  of  the  alluvial  period,  caused  a 
conglomerate  deposit  of  the  bichloride  of  tellurium,  thus 
completely  upsetting  the  glacier  theory,  and  throwing  us 
back  on  the  patio  process. 

Having  thus  satisfactorily  and  scientifically  accounted  for 
the  condition  of  the  croppings,  which,  from  the  simplicity 
of  my  theory,  you  will  readily  understand,  I  will  now 
proceed  to  a  particular  description  of  the  incline.  The 
dimensions  of  the  incline  are  nine  feet  high  by  four  feet 
wide,  and  is  at  present  eight  hundred  and  forty -two  feet 
deep.  At  this  depth  the  ledge  is  far  richer  in  silver  than 
near  the  surface,  as  we  can  find  ore,  not  selected,  but  taken 
promiscuously,  that  will  assay  from  $3  to  $7.75  per  ton  in 
silver.  As  a  general  course,  the  ledge  dips  at  an  angle  of 
98°  from  the  perpendicular,  thus  affording  good  facilities 
for  getting  out  the  ore.  The  wall  rock  is  composed  of 
inferior  oolite  meerschaum  of  the  lower  silurian,  and  is 
very  porous,  and  with  traverse  cleavage,  and  anhydrous 


358  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

sulphate  of  limestone — which,  by  the  way  are  excellent 
indications  of  permanence.  The  country  rock  is  sui  generis, 
and  is  almost  wholly  composed  of  metamorphic  polyglot, 
badly  intermixed  with  jaspery  quartz.  A  level  has  been 
run  at  a  distance  of  one  hundred  feet  from  the  mouth  of  the 
incline,  from  which  about  eight  thousand  tons  have  been 
extracted  ;  and  as  the  cost  of  extracting  was  only  about  $15 
per  ton,  the  rock  can  be  used  for  building  roads,  or  for  any 
other  purpose  the  company  may  deem  proper.  I  would 
suggest,  however,  that  it  might  be  more  profitable  to  leave 
it  where  it  is.  Hoping  that  this  report  will  prove  entire 
ly  satisfactory,  it  is  respectfully  submitted. — Reese  River 
Reveille. 


SKETCH    OF    MEADOW    LAKE. 

>NTIL  a  very  recent  period,  this  romantic  spot 
in  Nevada  County,  about  forty  miles  east  of 
Nevada  City,  was  almost  wholly  unknown  to 
the  public  of  California.  Travelers  over  the 
Henness  Pass  and  Donner  Lake  routes  returned 
to  their  homes  in  the  lowlands,  and  described  in 
glowing  language  the  wild  and  picturesque  scenery  which 
skirts  those  highways  as  they  approach  the  summits  of  the 
Sierra.  Now  and  then,  an  adventurous  tourist,  who  had  wan 
dered  from  the  great  thorough  fares  of  travel,  among  the  soli 
tudes  of  the  mountains,  published  a  sketch  from  his  note 
book,  descriptive  of  a  somber  forest,  through  whose  shadowy 
glades  reigned  an  awful  silence,  a  crystal  stream  whose 
banks  were  fringed  with  the  loveliest  of  flowers,  or  some 
magnificent  sheet  of  water,  in  whose  clear  waves  he  had  seen 
reflected  the  fleeting  clouds  of  a  summer  sky,  or  the  starry 
firmament  of  night.  Yet  a  large  majority  even  of  the  read 
ing  community  had  no  very  definite  idea  of  the  climate, 
scenery,  or  resources  of  the  mountainous  region  included  in 
the  boundaries  of  the  present  township  of  Meadow  Lake. 
In  their  minds  it  was  associated  with  the  vision  of  a  dreary 
winter,  extending  over  nine  months  of  the  year,  and  a  rocky, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  359 

inaccessible  wilderness,  closed  to  the  approaches  of  society 
by  impenetrable  barriers  of  snow  and  ice.  The  remem 
brance  of  the  ill-fated  Donner  party  cast  a  shade  of  deeper 
gloom  over  the  picture  which  imagination  had  drawn. 

Still  Excelsior  did  not  remain  entirely  unexplored.  The 
demand  for  water  wherewith  to  work  the  auriferous  claims 
scattered  through  the  valleys  and  foot-hills  of  Nevada  and 
Sierra  counties,  had  at  an  early  period  attracted  the  atten 
tion  of  capitalists  to  these  snow-crowned  and  exalted  regions. 
Here,  it  was  evident,  might  be  obtained  at  the  proper  eleva 
tions,  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  the  coveted  element,  which 
could  be  collected  in  reservoirs,  and  conducted  by  aqueducts 
to  less  favored  localities.  Action  speedily  followed  the 
conception,  and  in  the  summer  of  1858,  the  first  permanent 
structure  was  erected  in  the  district  by  the  South  Yuba  Ca 
nal  Company.  It  consisted  of  a  stone  wall  projected  across 
a  ravine,  the  banks  of  which  were  some  300  yards  apart. 
This  wall  forms  the  dam  of  a  reservoir,  or  artificial  lake, 
from  which  Nevada  City,  and  a  large  section  of  country  in 
the  southwestern  part  of  Nevada  County,  obtain,  in  the  sum 
mer  and  fall  months,  their  principal  supply  of  water.  It 
measures  in  some  places  fifty  feet  in  height ;  is,  at  the  apex, 
fifteen  feet  wide,  and  is  built  of  solid  granite,  without  a  par 
ticle  of  wood  or  cement  entering  into  its  composition. 

The  sheet  of  water,  thus  collected  and  discharged  by  a 
small  gate  at  the  dam,  is  called  Meadow  Lake,  and  lies  with 
in  the  corporate  limits  of  the  town  designated  by  the  same 
name.  The  reservoir,  or  lake,  is  about  two  miles  long  from 
north  to  south,  and  between  three  hundred  yards  and  three- 
fourths  of  a  mile  wide,  with  a  depth,  in  places,  ranging  with 
the  season,  of  from  ten  to  thirty  fathoms.  Other  enterprises 
of  a  similar  character  followed,  and  they  have  undoubtedly 
proved  of  incalculable  benefit  to  several  cities,  and  a  mul 
titude  of  miners  and  agriculturists  in  Sierra  and  Nevada 
counties. 

No  discovery,  and  not  even  a  suspicion  of  the  existence 
of  mineral  treasures  followed  the  labors  of  the  first  explo 
rers  of  the  district.  They  passed  over  ledges,  since  proven 
to  be  exceedingly  rich,  without  a  dream  of  the  wealth  be- 


360  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

iieath  their  feet.  A  fact,  at  first  view  so  remarkable,  can 
only  be  accounted  for  by  the  peculiar  appearance  of  the 
country,  differing  in  almost  every  respect  from  what  is  pre 
sented  in  any  other  portion  of  California. 

Sometime  in  1860,  Henry  Hartley  wandered  to  these 
mountain  solitudes.  He  came  partly,  as  the  writer  has  been 
informed,  with  a  view  to  the  improvement  of  his  health, 
threatened  somewhat  with  consumptive  tendencies,  and 
partly  to  trap  the  wild  game  of  the  mountains,  when  the 
deep  snows  of  winter  should  have  fallen.  ISTo  idea  of  gold- 
hunting  seems  to  have  occurred  to  the  hardy  trapper  as  he 
plunged  into  solitudes  more  dreary  and  desolate  than  the 
lonely  island  of  Selkirk.  The  long  winters  of  the  mountains 
were  his  choice  seasons.  Then  it  was,  when  not  imprisoned 
in  his  cabin  by  the  fury  of  the  storm,  the  adventurer  glided 
with  his  snow-shoes  over  the  frozen  expanse  which  sur 
rounded  him.  In  the  spring  the  trapper  resorted  witli  the 
rewards  of  the  chase,  to  the  lowlands,  lingered  there  during 
the  summers,  and  returned  with  his  supplies  when  the  snows 
first  announced  the  approach  of  winter.  Thus  passed  three 
years  of  his  sojourn  in  the  wilderness,  when  in  June  of  1863, 
Hartley  first  observed,  with  some  surprise,  a  number  of 
ledges  about  half  a  mile  distant,  in  a  southeasterly  direction, 
from  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Meadow  Lake.  In  Au 
gust  of  the  same  year.  Hartley,  accompanied  by  John  Sim 
ons  and  Henry  Fentel,  to  whom  he  had  communicated  the 
news  of  his  discovery,  visited  the  newly  found  ledges,  and 
in  September  made  the  first  locations  in  Meadow  Lake,  then 
called  "Excelsior" — and  forming  a  part  of  Washington 
township.  ./.. 

Spring,  as  it  is  seen  in  other  portions  of  California,  is  un 
known  in  these  high  altitudes.  The  transition  from  winter 
to  summer  is  almost  immediate.  As  the  period  for  the  inev 
itable  change  draws  near,  it  would  seem  that  the  storm-king, 
throned  in  the  frozen  recesses  of  the  mountains,  becoming 
conscious  that  his  tempestuous  reign  must  soon  dissolve, 
under  the  genial  sunshine  of  summer,  exerts  all  his  remain 
ing  strength,  and  makes  a  last  determined  effort  to  retain 
his  dominion  over  nature. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  361 

The  months  of  March,  April,  and  May,  1866,  will  long  be 
remembered  in  the  mountains  for  their  unprecedented  se 
verity.  All  marks  of  the  narrow  trails  which  traverse  the 
summit  were  obliterated  by  the  drifting  snows,  and  even  the 
highways,  in  many  places,  were  rendered  difficult  of  pas 
sage.  As  an  illustration  of  the  character  of  the  season,  it 
may  be  mentioned,  that  from  the  2Uth  of  May  until  the  first 
day  of  June,  there  was  almost  constantly  a  snow-storm  in 
and  around  Meadow  Lake.  The  summer  opens  with  a 
strange  aspect  in  this  mountainous  region.  Instead  of  fra 
grant  flowers,  murmuring  streams,  the  hum  of  bees,  and 
carol  of  birds,  so  familiar  to  the  denizen  of  the  plains  on  the 
approach  of  the  summer  months,  here  may  be  seen  moun 
tains  capped  with  snow,  streams  held  fast  by  frozen  chains, 
and  icicles  pendent  from  the  branches  of  the  giant  pines, 
whose  lofty  heads  tower  grandly  among  the  clouds  of  the 
Sierra. 

The  first  storm  of  the  winter  of  1866-67,  commenced  on 
the  morning  of  the  third  of  November ;  it  was  ushered  in 
with  the  usual  gales  from  the  southwest,  and  on  their  wings 
came  the  lowering  clouds  of  winter,  frowning  darkly,  as  they 
gathered  around  the  mountain-tops.  Rain  and  snow  came 
down  in  heavy  showers  during  the  day  ;  by  night  the  former 
element  had  disappeared,  and  the  snow-flakes  descended 
with  noiseless  fall  upon  forest,  hill,  and  glen.  At  sunrise 
on  the  fourth,  the  face  of  nature  was  covered  with  a  veil  of 
spotless  white.  No  one,  unless  he  has  been  an  eye-witness 
of  the  scene,  can  appreciate,  from  description,  the  wondrous 
change  which  a  few  hours  of  a  winter's  storm  will  effect  in 
the  appearance  of  a  mountain  landscape.  At  eve  the  sun 
sinks  in  purple  splendor  beneath  the  horizon  ;  no  sign  in 
the  heavens  indicates  to  the  inexperienced  observer  the 
coming  storm.*  The  old  mountaineer,  however,  reads  nature 
with  a  different  power  of  perception,  and  readily  discerns 
the  portents  of  the  tempest.  He  sees  them  in  the  light 
clouds  which  hover  in  the  western  sky  ;  he  hears  them  in 
the  southwest  wind's  melancholy  sighing  through  the  for 
ests.  The  last  glance  at  sunset  takes  in  the  evergreen  pines, 
the  stream  dancing  along  its  narrow  channel,  and  dashing 


362  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

its  spray  over  the  grim  old  rocks  which  stand  in  its  way 
ward  course — the  lakes  whose  crystal  waves  reflect  the 
golden  hues  of  departing  day  ;  the  next  morn  the  scene  is 
changed.  The  icy  hand  of  winter  has  been  laid  on  the 
landscape,  and  the  beholder,  dazzled  and  astonished,  iinds 
scarcely  a  trace  of  the  loveliness  which  enchanted  his  senses 
the  previous  evening.  The  stillness  and  repose  of  death 
now  reign,  where  only  a  few  hours  before  all  was  life  and 
animation.  The  mountain-tops  are  shrouded  in  robes  of 
white  ;  the  tall  pines,  with  their  snowy  wreaths  and  pendent 
icicles,  wear  a  strange  and  spectral  appearance  ;  the  bab 
bling  brook  is  frozen  into  silence,  and  the  lake  lies  cold  and 
motionless,  its  polished  surface  gleaming  like  burnished 
steel  in  the  light  of  day.  The  scene  is  no  longer  beautiful — 
it  has  become  sublime. 

The  writer  feels  that  he  can  not,  in  justice  to  the  subject 
which  he  has  ventured  to  present  to  the  public,  conclude 
this  description  without  an  allusion,  at  least,  to  the  mag 
nificent  scenery  and  glorious  summer  and  autumn  climate 
of  Excelsior.  He  has,  in  times  past,  been  a  dweller  in  the 
mountains,  far  removed  from  the  luxurious  ease  of  the 
cities,  and  subject  to  all  the  privations  of  life  in  the  wilder 
ness.  He  finds  an  ample  compensation  for  any  sacrifice  of 
social  enjoyment,  in  the  wondrous  pictures  which  memory 
will  retain  of  Excelsior  to  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  life. 

Some  ten  miles  distant  from  the  line  of  railroad  travel, 
and  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  beautiful  lake  of  the 
meadow,  the  visitor  can  find  a  scene  of  loveliness  and  sub 
limity  not  surpassed  on  the  habitable  globe.  Let  him,  on 
some  dewy  morn,  climb  to  the  top  of  "Old  Man  Moun 
tain,"  or  the  heights  which  to  the  westward,  overlook  the 
pleasant  village  of  Meadow  Lake.  From  those  rocky  bat 
tlements  the  soul  expands  as  it  contemplates  the  beauty 
and  grandeur  of  nature.  Look  well,  for  the  picture  which 
spreads  before  you  has  been  drawn  "by  the  hand  of  an 
Almighty  Artist.  In  one  direction  repose  a  cluster  of  lakes, 
whose  clear  waves  mirror  the  fleeting  clouds  of  day.  Their 
shores,  rising  into  gentle  hills,  are  crowned  with  stately 
forests,  and  decked  with  flowers  as  fair  as  the  dews  of  earth 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  363 

ever  nourished.  Down  the  mountain  sides  roll  in  silvery 
threads  a  thousand  tiny  streams,  finding  rest  in  the  bosom 
of  some  placid  lake,  or  mingling  with  the  sparkling  waters 
of  the  rapid  rolling  Yuba.  Glancing  in  another  course,  at 
the  base  of  Old  Man  Mountain,  the  dazzled  eye  beholds  a 
landscape  of  a  sterner  character.  Huge  bowlders  of  ever 
lasting  granite,  trees  standing  apart  and  in  solitary  majesty, 
and  frightful,  yawning  chasms  make  up  a  picture,  wild, 
weird,  and  desolate,  but  grandly  sublime.  The  writer  has 
]ooked  upon  the  scene  at  all  hours  of  the  day,  and  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year,  and  never  yet  without  a  feeling  of  sol 
emn  awe  pervading  his  whole  being.  Perhaps  the  most 
appropriate  time  to  view  the  landscape  is  when  the  storm  is 
raging,  and  the  darkness  of  twilight  has  cast  a  somber  man 
tle  over  the  face  of  nature.  At  fitful  intervals,  when  the 
lightning's  glare  illumes  the  scene,  and  the  harsh  thunder 
rolls  along  the  granite  peaks,  one  catches  for  a  moment  an 
inspiration  which  tempts  him  to  exclaim  : — 

"The  sky  is  changed  :  and  such  a  change !     O  night, 
And  storm  and  darkness,  ye  are  wondrous  strong — 
Yet  lovely  in  your  strength,  as  is  the  light 
Of  a  dark  eye  in  woman." 

The  beauty  of  the  scenery  is  not  the  only,  nor  perhaps 
the  chief,  attraction  of  Excelsior.  The  delightful  summer 
and  fall  climate  of  the  district  has  excited  the  admira 
tion  of  all  who  have  visited  it  during  these  seasons.  In 
August  and  September,  when  the  heat  of  the  plains  is  sultry 
and  oppressive,  the  temperature  of  the  summit  is  most 
refreshing.  The  physical  character  of  the  country  contrib 
utes  to  this  result.  The  altitude  of  the  district,  placed 
between  seven  arid  eight  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  ocean,  secures  it  alike  against  the  assaults  of  pestilence, 
or  the  miasmatic  vapor  of  the  lowlands.  On  the  other 
hand,  its  numerous  lakes,  rippling  streams,  and  dense 
forests,  not  only  afford  pleasing  contrasts  to  the  eye,  but 
diffuse  an  agreeable  moisture  through  the  atmosphere,  and 
thus  take  from  it  that  rareness  so  generally  prevalent  in 


364:  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

mountainous  regions.  To  the  invalid  in  search  of  vigorous 
health ;  to  the  tourist,  longing  to  sojourn  awhile  amid 
scenes  of  unsurpassed  grandeur ;  to  the  weary  dweller  in 
the  city,  or  on  the  plains,  who  would  exchange,  for  a  brief 
season,  the  conventional  restraints  of  society  for  the  free 
life  of  the  mountains,  Excelsior  offers  inducements  to  a 
visit  beyond  any  spot  in  California. 

HON.  FRANK  TILFORD. 


A     VALUABLE     TABLE. 

BARREL  MEASURE— Cider  and  other  liquids, 
30  gallons.     Rice,    600  pounds.     Flour,    196 
Ibs.     Powder,  25  Ibs. 

Bushel  Measure — Wheat,  beans,  potatoes  and 
clover  seeds,  60  Ibs.  Corn,  rye,  flax-seed  and 
onions,  56  Ibs.  Corn  on  the  cob,  70  Ibs.  Buckwheat,  52 
Ibs.  Barley,  48  Ibs.  Hemp  seed,  44  Ibs.  Timothy  seed, 
45  Ibs.  Castor  beans,  46  Ibs.  Oats,  35  Ibs.  Bran,  20  Ibs. 
Blue-grass  seed,  14  Ibs.  Salt,  85  Ibs.  Dried  apples,  24  Ibs. 
Dried  peaches,  33  Ibs. 

A  hoop,  18 J  inches  diameter,  8  inches  deep,  holds  a  Win-. 
Chester  bushel.     A  box  12  inches  square,  7  and  7  1-32  deep, 
will  hold  half  a  bushel. 

A  Gallon  Measure — An  English  Imperial  gallon  is  10  Ibs. 
of  distilled  water  at  62  degrees  Fahrenheit,  when  the  barom 
eter  stands  at  30  degrees. 

Land  Measure — An  English  Imperial  acre  is  4,840  square 
yards,  or  160  square  rods.  A  square  of  13  rods  upon  each 
side  is  commonly  counted  an  acre  ;  it  is  9  rods  over  measure. 
A  square  22  yards  upon  each  side  is  one-tenth  of  an  acre. 

English  acre,  4,840  square  yards;  Scotch,  6,150;  Irish, 
7,840 ;  Hamburg,  11,545 ;  Amsterdam,  9,722  ;  Dantzic, 
6,650;  France  (hectare),  11,960;  Prussia  (morgen),  3,053. 

Government  Land  Measure — A  township,  36  sections,  each 
a  mile  square. 

A  section,  640  acres. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  365 

A  quarter  section,  half  a  mile  long,  north  and  south,  and 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  wide,  80  acres. 

A  sixteenth  section,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  square,  40  acres. 

The  sections  are  all  numbered  one  to  thirty  -six,  com 
mencing  at  the  northeast  corner. 

The  sections  are  divided  in  quarters,  which  are  named  by 
the  cardinal  points.  The  quarters  are  all  divided  in  the 
same  way.  The  description  of  a  forty-acre  lot  would  read  : 
The  south  half  of  the  west  half  of  the  southwest  quarter  sec 
tion  \  ,  in  township  24,  north  of  range  7  west,  or  as  the  case 
might  be. 

Mile  Measure  —  A  standard  English  mile,  which  is  the 
measure  that  we  use,  is  5,280  feet  in  length,  1,760  yards,  or 
320  rods.  A  strip  one  rod  wide,  and  one  mile  long,  is  two 
acres.  By  this  it  is  easy  to  calculate  how  much  land  is 
taken  up  by  roads,  and  also  how  much  is  wasted  by  fences. 

A  "Sabbath-day's  journey,"  1,152  yards,  18  yards  less 
than  two-thirds  of  a  mile. 

A  day's  journey,  33|  miles. 
!     A  reed,  10  feet,  11J  inches. 

A  palm,  3  inches. 

A  fathom,  6  feet. 

A  reek  foot  is  12J  inches. 

A  Hebrew  foot  is  1-212  of  an  English  foot. 

A  cubit  is  2  feet. 

A  great  cubit  is  11  feet. 

An  Egyptian  cubit  is  21,888. 

A  span  is  10,944. 

Board  Measure—  Boards  are  sold  by  superficial  measure, 
at  so  much  per  foot,  of  one  inch  or  less  in  thickness,  adding 
one-fourth  to  the  price  of  each  quarter  inch  in  thickness 
over  an  inch. 

Grain  Measures  in  Bulk—  Multiply  the  width  and  length 
of  the  pile  together,  and  that  product  by  the  height,  and 
divide  by  5,150,  and  you  have  the  contents  in  bushels. 

A  Ton  Weight—  In^San  Francisco,  a  ton  is  2,000  pounds. 
In  most  places,  a  ton  of  hay,  &c.,  is  2,240  pounds. 

A  ton  of  round  timber  is  40  cubic  feet  ;  of  square  timber, 
54  cubic  feet. 


oap     ^t 


366  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

"  A  quarter ''  of  corn  or  other  grain  sold  by  the  bushel  is 
eight  imperial  bushels,  or  a  quarter  of  a  ton. 

A  ton  of  liquid  measure  is  252  gallons. 

A  firkin  of  butter  is  56  pounds  ;  a  tub  of  butter  is  84 
pounds. 

A  bale  of  cotton  in  Egypt  is  90  Ibs.  In  America,  a  com 
mercial  bale  is  400  Ibs.,  though  cut  up  to  vary  from  280  to 
420,  in  different  localities. 

A  bale  or  bag  of  Sea  Island  cotton  is  300  Ibs. 

Wool — In  England,  wool  is  sold  by  the  sack  or  boll  of 
22  stone  ;  which,  at  14  Ibs.  to  the  stone,  is  308  Ibs. 

A  pack  of  wool  is  17  stone  2  Ibs.,  which  is  rated  as  a  pack 
load  for  a  horse.  It  is  240  Ibs.  A  tod  of  wool  is  3  stone  14 
Ibs.  A  wey  of  wool  is  6"j  tods.  Two  weys  a  sack.  A  clove 
of  wool  is  half  a  stone. 

The  Stone  weight  is  14  Ibs.  when  weighing  wool,  feathers, 
hay,  &c.,  but  a  stone  of  beef,  fish,  butter,  cheese,  is  only 
8  Ibs. 

A  Last  is  an  English  measure  of  various  articles. 

A  last  of  soap,  ashes,  herrings,  and  some  similar  things, 
is  12  barrels. 

A  last  of  corn  is  12  quarters. 

A  last  of  gunpowder  is  24  barrels. 

A  last  of  flax  or  feathers  is  1,700  Ibs. 

A  last  of  wool  is  12  sacks. 

Coal — A  chaldron  of  coal  is  58§  cubic  feet,  or  by  measure, 
36  heaped  bushels.  A  heaped  bushel  of  anthracite  coal 
weighs  80  Ibs.,  making  2,880  Ibs:'  to  the  chaldron. 

Wood— A  cord  of  wood  is  128  solid  feet  in  this  country 
and  England.  In  France,  it  is  576  feet.  We  cord  wood  4 
feet  long,  in  piles  of  4  feet  by  8. 

In  New  Orleans,  wood  is  retailed  by  the  pound,  and  to  a 
limited  extent  in  New  York.  It  is  also  sold  by  the  barrel. 
A  load  of  wood  in  New  York  is  42|  cubic  feet,  or  one-third 
of  a  cord. 

Wood  is  sold  in  England  by  the  stack,  skid,  quintal,  bil 
let,  and  bundle. 

A  stack  is  108  solid  feet,  and  usually  is  piled  12  feet  long, 
3  feet  high,  and  3  feet  wide. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  36T 

A  quintal  of  wood  is  100  Ibs. 

A  skid  is  a  round  bundle  of  sticks,  4  feet  long.  A  one- 
notch  skid,  23  inches.  A  three-notch  skid,  28  inches.  A 
four-notch  skid,  33  inches.  A  five-notch  skid,  38  inches. 


THE    AMOUNT    OF    SILVER    IN    USE    AMONG    MEN. 


S  silver  constitutes,  with  gold,  the  great  me 
dium  of  commercial  exchange  over  all  the 
world,  and  as  in  olden  times  it  was  the  only 
medium,  and  is  so  still  among  the  nations  of 
Eastern  Asia,  the  following  historical  reminis 
cences  and  estimates  as  to  the  value  of  the  silver  now  in  the 
possession  of  men  may  be  of  interest. 

The  first  notice  of  silver  we  find  in  the  Bible  mentions  that 
Abraham  received  "pieces'1  of  silver,  and  weighed  out 
" shekels"  of  it,  which  were  current  money  among  the 
merchants.  It  appears,  however,  that  regular  silver  coin 
was  only  made  about  nine  hundred  years  before  our  era  by 
the  ^Eginetans  (see  the  Parian  chronicle).  A  Babylonian  in 
scription,  found  by  Rawlinson,  states  that  the  city  of  Damas 
cus,  after  its  conquest  by  Phuluk,  had  to  pay  a  tribute  of 
2,300  talents  of  silver.  Plinius  states  that  Cyrus  collected  from 
his  Asiatic  victories  an  amount  of  silver  which,  reduced  to 
our  standard  of  the  gold  dollar,  would  equal  $40,000,000,000. 
The  statement  is  almost  incredible,  as  will  appear  from  the 
following  calculations  about  the  real  amount  of  silver  in 
different  hands,  founded  on  reliable  evidence  : — 
Herodotus  states  that  the  nations  subdued  by 

the  Persians  paid  a  yearly  tribute  of  silver 

equal  to  $15,000,000:  they  paid  this,  say, 

ten  years,  $150,000,000 

Carthage   paid  to   Rome,    after  the   second 

Punic  War,  $180,000  for  fifty  years,  9,000,000 

Spain  paid  to  Rome  $2,240,000  for  twelve 

years,  ....          . -:•<       27,000,000 


368  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Silver  was,  in  consequence,  so  abundant  in 

Rome,  that  Caligula  loaded  125,000  pounds 

on  armor  and  weapons  used  in  the  circus, 

worth,  at  the  present  rates,  $2,500,000 

It  appears  from  Plinius  that  the  silver  mines 

of  Spain  were  worked  already  2,000  years 

ago  to  the  distance  of  one  and  a  half  miles 

from  the  surface,  and  Poly  "bins  states  that 

the  Carthaginians  had  40,000  men  engaged 

there  in  that  business  ;   the  amount  they 

took  out  is  estimated  at  100,000,000 

The  Moors  continued  this  mining  very  sue 

cessfully,  and  took  out  an  amount  esti 
mated  at  •'«.-.•  (  55,000,000 
After  the  Moors,  the  mines  were  deserted 

until   reopened,    in  1571,  by  the   Fugger 

family  (German),  who  extracted,  from  1571 

to  1607,  15,000,000 

Again  the  mines  were  idle  till  1825,  since 

which  time  English  companies  have  taken 

out  about  -  30,000,000 

In  Germany,  silver  mining  was  commenced 

about  the  year  700 ;  in  Bohemia  and  the 

Hartz  in  1000  ;   in  Tyrol  and  Saxony  in 

1200  ;  in  England,  France,  Hungary,  and 

Norway  in  1400.  The  total  amount  pro 
duced  by  all  these  countries  is  estimated  at  200,000,000 
But  all  this  was  put  in  the  shade  when,  after 

the  discovery  of  America,  silver  was  found 

in  Mexico   and   South  America,  where  it 

had  been  mined  by  the  natives  for  an  un 
known  period  of  time,  but  in  so  imperfect 

and  primitive  a  manner  that  the  treasures 

found  by  Europeans  has  far    surpassed 

those  in  the  hands  of  the  natives,  large  as 

they  were.      For  instance,  two  beams  of 

silver  were  found  by  Pizarro,  near  Cuzco, 

twenty   feet   long,    one    foot  wide,    three 

inches  thick  ;  consequently,  containing  ten 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  369 

cubic  feet,   weighing  9,000  pounds,    and 

worth  $180,000 

The   ornaments    of   temples    stolen  "by   the 

Spaniards  amounted  to  26,000  pounds,       ^  520,000 

All  the  Mexican  silver  was  used  in  ornament 
ing  temples,  &c.,  not  as  coin  or  circulating 

medium. 
Compare,  now,  this  amount  with  the  results 

obtained  by  civilized  mining  : — 
Amount  of  silver  smelted  at  the  Pasco  works 

from  1784  to  1827—5,000,000  pounds  troy,  100,000,000 
Yearly  yield  of  three  mines  for  thirty  years 

after  1827,  $2,000,000  per  year,  60,000,000 

The  mines  of  Great  Potosi,  from  its  discovery 

in  1545  until  1556,  $10,000,000  per  year,  -  110,000,000 
The  same  mines,  from  that  time  till  1778,  -  1,000,000,000 
For  the  last  ninety  years,  $1, 000, 000  per  year,  90, 000, 000 
The  mines  of  Peru  and  Bolivia,  from  their 

discovery  till  1845,    -  -     2,500,000,000 

The  mines  of  Chili,  worked  by  English  com 
panies,  from  1836  to  1853,    -  -          34,000,000 
Mines   of  Mexico,  according   to  Humboldt, 

from  1550  to  1700,  $2,500,000  per  year,  -  375,000,000 
During  the  eighteenth  century,  $23,000,000 

per  year,  -  -     2,300,000,000 

In  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 

$10,000,000  per  year,  500,000,000 

During  the  last  fifteen  years,  $25,000,000  per 

year,  -         ;v/-  ,       ',-  -  -  -        375,000,000 


All  these  numbers  make  a  grand  total  of       -  $8,030,700,000 

It  is  not  likely  that  the  nations  of  Asia  mined  as  much 
silver  as  this  amount ;  the  probabilities  are  that  the  total 
amount  possessed  by  them  before  the  introduction  of  west 
ern  silver  did  not  exceed  $1,000,000,000,  which  would  swell 
the  amount  to  $9,030,700,000  ;  and  making  a  further  allow 
ance  for  amounts  not  accounted  for  of  some  $300,000,000, 
the  whole  amount  of  silver  in  possession  of  man  in  this 
country  would  be  less  than  $10,000,000,000 ;  only  one 

24 


370  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

quarter  of  the  amount  which  Plinius  states  that  Cyrus  col 
lected  more  than  two  thousand  years  ago. 

In  closing  this  article,  we  can  not  omit  mentioning  one 
fact  which  strikes  us  as  a  curiosity,  that  all  this  existing 
silver  is  inadequate  to  pay  the  debts  of  the  governments  of 
two  or  three  great  modern  nations. 

P.  H.  VAN  DER  WEYDE,  M.  D. 

In  American  Journal  of  Mining,  N.  Y.,  January  25, 
1868. 


ADDKESS    BY    NEWTON    BOOTH,    AT   THE    OPENING    OF    THE    MECHANICS' 
INDUSTRIAL    FAIR,    AT    SAN    FRANCISCO,    AUGUST    8,    1868. 


HATEVER  virtues  may  rightly  be  ascribed  to 
this  nineteenth  century  in  which  we  live, 
humility  is  not  one  of  them.  It  is  a  philan 
thropic  age.  Never  before  were  there  so  many 
benevolent  organizations,  never  were  the  help 
less,  the  blind,  the  insane,  so  tenderly  cared 
for.  It  is  a  heroic  century— its  sixty -eight  years  have  been 
full  of  that  heroism  that  does  not  "  set  life  at  a  pin's  fee." 
It  is  a  democratic  age.  Never  have  the  people  been  of  so 
much  account,  and  seldom  has  genius  been  so  rare.  It  is 
pre-eminently  an  age  of  mechanical  invention.  It  makes 
steam  bear  its  burdens,  lightning  carry  its  messages,  the 
sun  paint  its  pictures.  But  it  is  not  a  modest  age.  It  does 
not  lack  self-confidence  or  self-praise.  It  is  brimful  and 
running  over  with  egotism.  It  regards,  with  self-com 
placent  pity,  the  centuries  gone  before  that  did  not  have 
steamboats,  railroads,  and  telegraphs,  sewing-machines, 
cooking-stoves,  lucifer  matches,  steel  pens,  cylinder  press: 
es,  power-looms,  cotton-gins,  gang-plows,  reapers,  thrash 
ers,  apple-parers,  turning-lathes,  nitro-glycerine,  giant 
powder,  columbiads,  needle-guns,  Colt's  revolvers,  steam-, 
paddies,  track-layers,  baby -jumpers,  chloroform,  photo 
graphs,  and  coal  oil.  It  looks  with  a  kind  of  commisera 
tion  on  the  ages  to  come,  when  the  world  will  have  to  keep 
oivusing  old  tools,  as  human  ingenuity  and  nature  will  be 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  371 

alike  exhausted,  and  there  will  be  no  new  forms  to  invent, 
no  new  forces  to  discover.  If  it  experiences  a  momentary 
chagrin  because  it  has  not  achieved  the  perpetual  motion, 
nor  successfully  an  Avitor,  it  is  consoled  with  the  reflection 
that  it  has  not  accomplished  the  first,  because  it  is  impossi 
ble,  and  that  it  will,  the  second,  because  it  is  possible.  In 
short,  whoever  has  not  managed  to  be  born  in  the  nine 
teenth  century  has  been  very  unfortunate,  or  has  made  a 
great  mistake. 

Standing  in  this  temple  of  art,  this  armory  of  labor  filled 
with  the  implements  with  which  toil  carries  on  its  warfare 
with  want,  and  beautiful  with  the  evidence  of  its  triumphs, 
we  may  at  least  claim,  with  becoming  modesty,  that  the 
world  is  now  fast  learning  how  it  can  most  easily  get  its 
daily  bread — how  labor  can  be  made  most  productive,  for 
the  supply  of  physical  wants.  Two  other  questions  behind 
that — how  the  burdens  and  rewards  of  labor  shall  be  equi 
tably  distributed,  and  how  the  time  not  needed  for  the  sup 
ply  of  physical  wants  shall  be  so  employed  that  the  age 
may  be  clothed  with  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  glory 
equal  to  its  material  wealth  and  power,  it  has  scarcely  begun 
to  solve — questions  that  may  not  be  rightly  solved  until  a 
civilization  shall  arise  as  superior  to  ours  as  ours  is  to  bar 
barism,  in  a  future  as  distant  from  us  as  we  are  from  the 
creation  of  man. 

The  problem  of  daily  bread,  however,  is  neither  easy  nor 
unimportant.  If  men  depended  upon  nature  alone  for 
food,  upon  game,  fish  and  wild  fruits,  the  country  would 
be  crowded  where  population  averaged  one  to  five  square 
miles.  The  trapper  was  right,  if  he  would  remain  a  trap 
per  in  moving  farther  west,  because  the  settlement  was  get 
ting  too  thick  for  elbow-room  when  his  neighbor  built  his 
cabin  only  ten  miles  away. 

Consider  what  the  world  consumes  every  year.  200,- 
000,000  pounds  of  flour,  and  13,000,000  pounds  of  meat  go 
down  the  throat  of  New  York  City  yearly.  Multiply  by 
1,000,000,  and  if  you  can  conceive  the  result,  you  will  have 
some  idea  of  what  it  takes  to  feed  the  world  with  bare 
necessities.  California  consumes  annually,  365,000  barrels 


372  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

of  flour,  700,000  bushels  of  potatoes,  70,000,000  pounds  of 
meat,  1,000  tons  of  codfish,  38,000,000  pounds  of  sugar, 
5,000,000  pounds  of  coffee,  1,500,000  pounds  of  tea,  5,000,- 
000  pounds  of  butter,  20,000,000  pounds  of  rice  ;  wears  out 
§15,000,000  worth  of  dry-goods  and  shoe-leather,  and  burns 
up,  beside  houses  and  mountain  towns,  250, 000  tons  of  coal, 
4,000,000  pounds  of  powder,  4,000,000  of  candles,  1,000,000 
gallons  of  coal-oil,  and  50,000,000  of  cigars  ;  not  to  men 
tion  the  1,500,000  gallons  of  whisky  that  annually  assist  to 
consume  us.  If  all  this  had  to  be  raised,  mined  and  manu 
factured,  or  paid  for  by  the  labor  of  our  hands,  unassisted  by 
art,  we  would  have  few  holidays,  and  no  pageants  like  this. 
If  the  world  had  to  be  housed,  fed  and  clothed  with  only 
such  crude  tools  as  actual  necessity  would  suggest,  the 
many  would  be  slaves  to  the  few,  and  worn  out  in  their 
service,  or  all  would  be  the  slaves  of  toil.  There  could  be  no 
accumulations,  nothing  laid  up  against  a  bad  season  or  a 
rainy  day,  and  the  wolf  would  be  continually  at  the  door. 
Then  whoever  would  succeed  in  pointing  a  stick  with  iron 
to  scratch  the  ground,  at  seed-time,  and  whoever  would 
teach  a  dog  to  guard  the  sheep  while  the  shepherd  slept, 
would  be  benefactors  of  the  race.  The  man  who  would 
discover  that  salt  would  preserve  meat,  would  deserve  a 
patent  of  nobility ;  he  who  would  tame  a  horse  and  make 
him  draw  a  sled  and  carry  his  master,  would  be  a  king  ; 
and  he  who  would  make  the  wind  and  the  water  turn  a 
wheel  to  grind  the  corn,  might  be  worshiped  as  a  god.  Then 
imagine  that  after  a  day's  toil  that  brought  no  hope,  and 
a  night's  sleep  that  brought  no  dreams  of  rest,  men  should 
suddenly  awake  as  into  a  world  of  enchantment,  arid  find 
themselves  supernaturally  endowed,  so  that  they  could 
accomplish  with  their  hands,  or  by  a  wish  all  that  we  do 
with  all  the  tools,  machinery  and  appliances  of  modern  life, 
as  though  each  had  a  hundred  arms  and  were  gifted  with 
magic — as  though  each  were  winged  with  swiftness  like  the 
wind,  had  sinews  of  steel  and  strength  like  the  power  of 
steam,  and  you  will  appreciate  the  miracle  of  art—realize 
what  a  load  of  toil  invention  has  lifted  from  our  shoulders, 
what  a  burden  of  care  it  has  taken  from  the  heart  of  human- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  373 

ity.  Then,  too,  you  will  learn  where  the  leisure  comes 
from  after  actual  wants  are  supplied,  part  of  which  goes 
into  luxuries,  ornaments,  books,  newspapers,  paintings, 
music,  houses,  schools,  churches,  cities,  culture,  part  into 
idleness,  ennui,  whisky,  tobacco,  fast  life,  folly,  vice,  crime, 
and  all  of  which  is  called — civilization. 

But  this  miracle  of  art  is  not  the  work  of  a  night  or  the 
glory  of  an  age  ;  it  is  the  work  and  glory  of  the  whole  of 
man's  life  on  earth.     In  fable,  Minerva  sprang  armed  and 
panoplied  from  the  brain  of  Jove  ;  but  in  fact,  art  is  the 
slowest  growth  of  time.     Take  as  an  illustration  the  art  of 
printing.     The  idea  of  printing  is  older  than  history  or 
tradition.     It  is  so  natural  and  easy,  it  would  have  been 
strange  if  the  idea  of  the  printed  book  had  not  been  sug 
gested  to  Adam,  if  he  had  known  his  letters,  by  his  own. 
footprints  on  the  sand.     Seals  were  in  use  before  the  book 
of  Job — possibly  the  oldest  book  in  the  world — was  written  ; 
and  seals  used  for  making  impressions  contain  the  whole 
principle  of  printing.     Bricks  and  tiles  covered  with  char 
acters,  impressed  upon  the  clay  before  it  was  burned,  were 
common  not  only  in  Rome  and  Athens,  but  in  Babylon  and 
Nineveh.     Wood  engraving  was  brought  into  Europe  from 
the  East,  long  before  books  were  printed.    The  printing  of 
playing-cards    probably  first    suggested    the  printing   of 
books,  which  was  at  first  simply  wood  engraving,  each  page 
being  printed  upon  a  block  with  raised  letters.     Then  the 
letters  were  separated  into  wooden  movable  types  ;    then 
metallic  types  were  cast.     Meantime  the  Arabs,  by  what 
processes  of  thought,  by  what  slow  stages  of  invention,  I 
know  not,  had  progressed  from  using  the  bark  of  plants, 
the  papyrus  of  the  Egyptian,  to  the  manufacture  of  paper. 
The  method  of  casting  types,  so  that  they  could  be  easily 
multiplied,  and  the  manufacture  of  paper,  were  the  real 
difficulties  in  the  invention  of  printing ;  when  these  were 
overcome,  the  Hoe  cylinder  press  became  easy,  though  it  took 
the  improvements  of  four  hundred  years  to  attain  it.    Nay, 
the  press  sowing  newspapers  daily  all  over  the  land,  and 
sending  streams  of  knowledge  through  all  lands,  so  that 
whoever  is  athirst  may  come  and  drink,  was  as  inevitable 


374  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

as  the  succession  of  the  ages  when  Job  had  written  :  "  It  is 
turned  as  clay  to  the  seal." 

Two  centuries  "before  the  Christian  era,  Hero  of  Alexan 
dria  described  a  steam  toy,  a  mere  plaything.  After  2,000 
years'  experiments,  suggestions,  and  improvements,  that 
plaything  became  the  steam-engine.  In  the  same  manner  the 
round-bottomed  canoe,  made  from  a  log  hollowed  out  with 
fire,  grew  into  a  ship.  Fulton  combined  these  two  growths 
and  made  the  steamboat.  For  more  than  one  hundred  years 
before  Watt  was  born,  the  tram-road  had  been  in  use  in  Eng 
land  for  conveying  coal  from  the  colliery  to  the  place  of 
shipment.  Parallel  rails,  at  first  of  wood,  then  of  iron,  were 
laid,  to  which  wagons  with  grooved  wheels  were  fitted  and 
drawn  by  horses.  Stephenson  took  the  steam-engine  of 
Watt,  added  the  steam  blast,  mounted  it  on  driving  wheels, 
and  made  the  locomotive  ;  put  it  on  the  tram-road,  and  gave 
the  world  the  railway. 

Hargrave's  spinning-jenny,  Arkright's  spinning  frame, 
and  Cartright's  power-loom,  which  were  but  the  develop 
ment  of  the  distaff,  the  spinning-wheel,  and  of  the  hand- 
loom,  in  which  Joseph's  many-colored  coat  was  woven, 
were  contemporary  with  the  invention  of  the  condensing 
steam-engine  by  Watt — about  1780 — and  the  method  of 
puddling  and  rolling  iron  immediately  followed.  The 
steam-engine  revolutionized  industry — as  gunpowder  had 
war — furnishing  a  power  stupendous  in  its  strength,  mar 
velous  in  "the  ease,  precision,  and  ductility  with  which  it 
can  be  varied  and  applied,  so  that  it  can  engrave  a  seal,  or 
crush  masses  of  obdurate  metal ;  draw  out  without  break 
ing  a  thread  fine  as  a  gossamer,  and  lift  a  ship  of  war  like  a 
bauble  in  the  air ;  embroider  muslin,  and  forge  anchors  ; 
cut  steel  into  ribbons,  and  impel  loaded  vessels  against  the 
fury  of  the  winds  and  waves  ;"  it  not  only  supplemented 
all  mechanical  arts,  but  it  so  stimulated  the  inventive  facul 
ties,  that  since  then  men  have  expressed  their  best  thoughts 
in  wood  and  iron.  Surrounded  here  by  these  thoughts 
embodied  in  the  visible  forms  of  industry  and  art,  we  are 
in  the  presence  of  a  poem,  the  epic  of  progress,  in  which 
the  voices  of  all  the  ages  blend,  grander  in  its  suggestions, 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  375 

more  inspiring  in  its  hopes,  and  sublimer  in  its  theme,  than 
Homer,  or  Dante,  or  Milton  sang. 

But  let  n s  not  suppose  that  the  germs  of  art  have  reached 
their  full  fruition  in  our  age,  nor  that  the  future  will  pla 
giarize  the  present  or  repeat  the  past.  A  galvanic  toy,  the 
plaything  of  to-day,  may  one  day  supersede  the  steam- 
engine.  Steam,  that  is  usually  cited  as  the  highest  instance 
of  the  (Jominion  of  mind  over  matter,  is  expensive  in  the 
machinery  and  fuel  it  requires,  dangerous  and  destructive 
in  its  explosive  properties.  Nature's  grand  forces  are 
silent  and  safe.  The  rays  of  the  sun  exercise  on  earthly 
objects  every  day  a  meclianical  power  "in  comparison  with 
which  the  erection  of  the  Egyptian  pyramids  dwindles  into 
the  labor  of  mites."  The  force  that  binds  the  earth  to 
gether,  particle  to  particle,  is  mightier  than  the  earthquake 
that  comes  in  visitation  of  terror.  Who  can  touch  the 
chain  by  which  the  sun  holds  the  planets  in  their  orbits  ? 
Hear  what  Professor  Tyndale,  the  highest  scientific  author 
ity,  says,  after  a  mathematical  calculation  of  one  of  the 
molecular  forces  that  are  lavished  around  us:  "I  have 
seen  the  wild  stone  avalanches  of  the  Alps,  which  smoke 
and  thunder  down  the  declivities  with  a  vehemence  almost 
sufficient  to  stun  the  observer.  I  have  also  seen  snow- 
flakes  descending  so  quickly  as  not  to  hurt  the  fragile 
spangles  of  which  they  are  composed  ;  yet,  to  produce  from 
aqueous  vapor  a  quantity  of  that  tender  material  which  a 
child  could  carry,  demands  an  exertion  of  energy  competent 
to  gather  up  the  shattered  blocks  of  the  largest  stone 
avalanche  I  have  ever  seen,  and  pitch  them  to  twice  the 
height  from  which  they  fell."  Shall  not  these  forces  in 
which  nature  is  so  prodigal  be  utilized  in  the  art  and 
service  of  man  ? 

There  are  dominions  of  thought  in  which  the  mind  has 
reached  the  limits  of  its  capacity,  but  not  in  the  sphere  of 
mechanical  invention.  If  we  could  be  permitted  to  enter 
an  art  exhibition  at  Athens  in  the  days  of  Pericles,  while 
wandering  through  the  department  of  machinery,  agricul 
tural  implements,  mechanical  tools  and  power,  we  might 
exclaim  against  the  poverty  of  the  Greek  mind,  and  the 


376  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

"barrenness  of  Grecian  life.  But  when  the  statues  of 
Phidias  were  unveiled — when  those  marbles  "whose  head 
less,  armless  trunks,  in  their  severe  and  awful  beauty,  are 
at  once  the  delight,  admiration,  and  despair  of  modern 
artists,"  stood  revealed  in  the  full  glory  of  their  original 
perfection,  we  would  admit  that  there,  at  least,  the  world 
had  made  no  progress,  for  none  was  possible. 

Or  if  a  pupil  of  the  divine  Plato  could  revisit  the 
earth,  he  might  hear  at  the  High  School  in  San  Francisco, 
boys  and  girls  reciting  like  a  hackneyed  tale,  truths  in 
science  his  master  would  have  died  to  know  ;  but  when  he 
would  mingle  with  the  sages  of  the  earth,  he  would  find 
that  in  philosophy  the  thoughts  of  his  great  teacher  were 
the  boundaries  of  human  speculation,  that  the  highest  office 
of  philosophy  now  was  but  to  interpret  thoughts  uttered 
2,500  years  ago.  He  could  wander  around  the  earth  and 
hear  no  language  spoken  superior  to  the  Greek  in  purer 
compass  and  flexibility  ;  and  he  would  learn  that  in  poverty, 
eloquence  and  history,  Grecian  mind  had  furnished  the 
models  for  all  succeeding  ages,  in  eloquence,  poetry  and 
philosophy,  in  sculpture,  painting,  and  possibly  in  the 
forms  of  architecture,  in  language  as  a  medium  for  the 
expression  of  thought,  and  possibly  in  music,  the  language 
of  the  emotions,  there  will  be  no  higher  attainment  than 
has  already  been  reached.  No  race  will  ever  arise  su 
perior  to  the  Greek  in  intellectual  and  physical  organiza 
tion  ;  and  no  men  born  of  women  will  ever  thrust  Homer 
and  Shakespeare,  Phidias  and  Raphael,  Demosthenes  and 
Mozart  from  their  thrones  of  pre-eminence. 

There  are  also  two  devices,  or  inventions,  which  are, 
humanly  speaking,  perfect.  One  is  that  of  Arabic  numerals 
and  the  method  of  decimation,  by  which  the  ten  simple 
figures  the  school-boy  scrawls  upon  his  slate  can  be  made 
to  express  every  thing  the  mind  can  conceive  in  numbers, 
reaching  upward  toward  the  infinite,  and  downward 
toward  the  infinitesimal.  The  other  is  the  invention  of  the 
alphabet,  of  letters,  by  which  twenty-six  characters  have 
become  the  factors  of  all  human  intelligence,  bearing  from 
generation  to  generation  the  thoughts  and  wisdom  and 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  377 

learning  of  men  ;  have  become  the  world's  memory,  per 
mitting  nothing  to  perish  that  is  worthy  to  survive  ;  an 
invention  so  difficult  to  conceive,  so  simple  in  use,  so  grand 
and  complete,  that  the  world  had  better  lose  all  other  arts 
combined  than  to  forget  its  A  B  C's.  Sometimes  I  have 
thought  of  them  as  of  twenty- six  soldiers  that  set  out'  to 
conquer  the  world.  That  A  was  an  archer,  and  B  was  a 
bugler,  and  C  was  a  corporal,  and  D  was  a  drummer,  and 
E  was  an  ensign,  and  F  was  a  fifer,  and  Gr  was  a  gunner, 
down  to  Z,  who  was  a  zouave,  and  these  twenty- six  drill- 
sergeants  have  subdued  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  and  of 
the  air,  taken  possession  of  the  realms  of  thought,  and 
founded  a  republic  of  which  the  wise  and  noble  of  all  time 
are  citizens  and  contemporaries,  where  there  is  neither 
death  nor  forgetfulness — the  imperial  republic  of  letters. 
Again  I  have  thought  of  them  as  of  a  telegraphic  cable  laid 
beneath  the  waters  of  time,  safe  from  disturbing  storm  and 
tempest — so  short,  the  child's  primer  will  contain  it,  so  long 
it  connects  the  remotest  ages  with  the  present,  and  will 
stretch  to  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time.  We  pride  our 
selves  on  the  successful  laying  of  the  Atlantic  cable  as  the 
crowning  achievement  of  human  invention  ;  but  here  is  a 
cable  that  speaks  not  in  broken,  doubtful,  and  sibylline 
utterance,  but  charged  with  the  whole  spiritual  power  of 
all  human  intelligence,  with  a  circuit  reaching  through  all 
time,  connecting  all  brains  and  all  hearts  in  its  network, 
and  certain  to  carry  every  message  worthy  to  go  there  to 
the  last  man  who  shall  live  upon  earth. 

Here  is  an  invention  so  simple  that  the  child  learns  its 
use  while  playing  with  his  blocks  ;  so  grand  that  all  gen 
erations  can  not  exhaust  its  capabilities  ;  so  perfect,  no  age 
will  be  able  to  add  to  or  take  from.  In  the  invention  of 
letters,  man  arose  nearest  to  creative  power.  In  other 
inventions  he  has  dealt  with  material  substance,  with  tangi 
ble  things  ;  in  letters  he  created  from  nothing  forms  into 
which  he  himself  could  breathe  the  spirit  of  life,  the  immor 
tal  soul  of  power  and  eloquence  and  beauty. 

In  letters,  the  mind  has  reached  the  highest  heaven  of 
invention  ;  in  literature  and  the  fine  arts  it  has  touched  the 


378  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

boundaries  of  its  power,  and  knows  where  the  horizon 
meets  the  earth  ;  "but  in  science  and  the  mechanical  arts 
there  will  be  no  limit  to  improvement  while  nature  has  one 
secret  unrevealed,  one  force  unappropriated.  In  those 
grand  domains  there  ' i  is  ample  scope  and  verge  enough ' ' 
for  the  thought,  investigation,  and  skill  of  all  generations 
to  come,  and  the  work  of  each  generation  will  be  but  the 
scaffolding  on  which  the  next  shall  stand,  building  ever 
toward  a  sky  that  recedes  as  it  is  approached. 


ROSALIE. 

Now  twilight  sits  upon  the  hill 

And  lengthened  shades  the  valley  fill ; 

The  wild  bird's  song  is  hushed,  and  still 

Is  dreaming  nature,  Rosalie  ; 
While  here  within  this  spot,  o'ergro\7n 
With  leaves  and  flowers,  I  sit  alone, 
To  muse  on  thee  and  hours  flown, 

Love-winged  and  joyous,  Rosalie. 

To  muse  upon  those  happy  times, 
When  first  I  won  thee  with  my  rhymes; 
When  sweet  as  music's  vesper  chimes, 

Our  hearts  accorded,  Rosalie  ; 
When  life  flow'd  ever  like  the  stream 
Of  some  brain-pictured  lovely  dream, 
Where  airy  shapes  and  fancies  gleam 

Upon  its  bright  waves,  Rosalie. 

Afar  in  memory's  misty  light — 

As  stars  steal  through  the  gloom  of  light — 

The  twinklings  of  a  vision  bright 

Come  gently  o'er  me,  Rosalie ; 
A  vine-clad  cot  beneath  the  hill — 
The  gladsome  wanderings  of  a  rill — 
A  form  which  love's  bright  beamings  fill- 
Are  all  before  me,  Rosalie. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  379 

Once  more  we  walk  this  wildwood  shade, 
Where  oft  in  "  love's  young  dream  "  we  stray'd, 
Again  upon  the  flowery  glade 

We  pick  bright  blossoms,  Rosalie  ; 
Once  more  I  hear  the  wild  bird's  song 
That  charmed  us  all  the  summer  long, 
And  with  it  comes  a  glorious  throng 

Of  bright-winged  visions,  Rosalie. 

And  as  the  stars  come  out  to-night, 
All  trembling  on  their  lonely  height, 
Methinks  amid  their  dewy  light 

Thine  eyes  shine  on  me,  Rosalie ; 
Those  soft,  those  gently  speaking  eyes, 
Where  hopes  and  pleasant  memories, 
Like  silver  waves,  alternate  rise 

Upon  a  bright  sea,  Rosalie. 

Thy  face  to  me  was  as  a  tide, 
Where  barks,  love-laden,  ever  glide, 
With  Hope,  their  pilot  and  their  guide, 

And  I  their  haven,  Rosalie ; 
But  ah !  a  cloud  on  swift  wings  passed, 
And  all  the  sky  was  overcast, 
And  then  were  wrecked,  alas  !   too  fast, 

My  freighted  treasures,  Rosalie. 

I  can  not  twine  my  fingers  now 
In  thy  soft  hair,  nor  kiss  thy  brow, 
Nor  hear  thy  gentle  accents  flow 

In  murmured  music,  Rosalie  ; 
I  can  not  feel  thy  breatli  so  warm 
Upon  my  cheek,  nor  press  thy  form, 
Which,  like  a  flow'ret  in  a  storm, 

Slept  on  my  bosom,  Rosalie. 


And  though  each  wild  bird  sings  of  thee, 
And  in  each  summer  flower  I  see 
Thy  own  eyes,  bright  exceedingly^ 

Look  up  and  greet  me,  Rosalie ; 

/ 


380  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

I  start  and  sigh  to  think  that  thou 
Art  but,  to  me,  a  memory  now — 
A  star  that  gemmed  life's  morning  brow, 
Then  fled  and  left  me,  Rosalie. 

A  tall  oak  stricken  in  its  pride — 
The  fierce  red  bolt  has  rent  its  side — 
Scatters  its  seared  leaves  far  and  wide 

Upon  the  cold  heath,  Rosalie  ; 
So  too  my  heart  is  sorely  riven 
By  a  stern  fate,  'gainst  which  I've  striven, 
Till  my  poor  thoughts  like  leaves  are  driven 

Upon  the  rude  world,  Rosalie. 

And  I  have  sought  to  find,  in  vain, 
This  vision  of  my  youth  again  ; 
And  I  have  dreamed  until  my  brain 

Was  wild  with  dreaming,  Rosalie ; 
But,  oh  !  to  sit  and  muse  alone, 
Within  this  spot  with  flowers  o'ergrown, 
Is  all  that's  left  me  now,  my  own, 

My  lost,  my  lovely  Rosalie. 

Col.  I>.  F.  Washington. 


PROFESSOR  POWELL'S  LECTURE  ox  THE  PEAKS,  PARKS,  AND   PLAINS 

OF     COLORADO. 


POWELL  illustrated  by  various  beauti 
ful  and  impressive  similes  the  passage  of  time 
and  its  inexorable  influence  on  the  face  of  the 
globe.  Water  was  the  great  leveler,  crumbling 
down  the  hills  and  mountains,  making  vast  sub 
terranean  chambers.  He  described  the  slow  formation  of 
the  Mammoth  Cave  in  Kentucky,  to  give  an  idea  of  time. 
All  lands  had  been  baptized — had  risen  from  under  the 
water.  Many  Mammoth  Cave  periods  ago  the  crust  of  the 
earth  was  thin  and  plastic.  Earthquakes  kept  upheaving 
parts  of  the  earth's  crust,  but  it  was  too  weak  to  sustain 
them,  and  so  they  sank  and  were  upraised  again  until  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  381 

strata  were  bent  and  twisted  up  as  we  see  them  on  the 
mountains.  Nature  used  earthquakes  to  knead  the  earth' s 
crust  to  a  consistency  that  would  sustain  continents.  He 
described  the  period  when  the  Colorado  mountains,  newly- 
upheaved,  were  laved  by  a  shallow  torrid  sea,  on  whose 
shores  grew  tropical  plants  and  wandered  strange  animals 
now  extinct.  Forests  grew  upon  the  remains  of  forests,  in 
almost  interminable  succession.  Then  they  would  sink  to 
be  covered  with  sand.  This  process  was  gone  through  with 
again  and  again.  Hence  beds  of  coal,  alternately  with 
strata  of  sandstone.  A  bed  of  coal  was  one  of  Dame  Na 
ture'  s  pots  of  pickled  sunbeams.  On  the  west  side  of  the 
range  the  sea  was  filling  up  as  on  this  with  scaly  shales, 
slates,  coal,  limestone,  &c.  He  would  describe  one  of  the 
animals  of  that  period.  Its  substance  was  jelly  quartz,  and 
myriads  and  generations  of  them  were  connected  together. 
The  shells  of  these  animals  crystallize  into  the  agates  found 
in  the  Middle  Park.  He  had  seen  a  stratum  of  these  agates 
with  six  feet  of  magnesian  clay  over  it,  then  agates,  then 
clay,  for  two  hundred  feet  in  thickness. 

At  length  the  earth's  crust  was  kneaded  to  a  sufficient 
solidity  to  bear  up  the  mountains,  and  the  great  Rocky 
Mountains  were  laid  up  to  dry.  As  they  dried  and  shrank, 
fissures  were  made.  These  became  minerals  in  due  time. 
Their  east  and  west  course  had  relation  to  the  magnetic  cur 
rents.  Scientific  men  agreed  that  these  currents  were  caused 
by  the  falling  of  the  sunbeams  in  waves  on  the  earth — the 
same  old  story  of  sunbeams  condensed  into  coal.  It  was 
popularly  supposed  that  far  down  toward  the  center  of  the 
earth  was  an  ocean  of  molten  metal  which  had  been  pro 
jected  outward  through  fissures  in  the  earth's  crust.  But 
the  idea  was  rejected  by  the  learned.  Every  thing  was  in 
motion  by  molecules,  and  all  that  is  necessary  in  order  to 
segregate  the  minerals  from  the  rocks  is  to  direct  these 
molecular  motions.  The  elevations  of  the  mountains  were 
attended  by  igneous  phenomena.  Rivers  of  molten  rock  were 
belched  forth  and  poured  down  into  the  parks  and  on  the 
plains.  In  the  Middle  Park  a  basin  had  been  formed  fifty 
by  sixty  miles  in  extent.  One  great  fissure  of  this  kind  had 


382  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

filled  that  basin  five  hundred  feet  deep  with  hot  lava.  Tt 
was  poured  into  the  basin  while  it  was  filled  with  water. 
Then  were  born  the  storms  ;  the  rain  fell  incessantly.  An 
other  of  these  lava  streams  was  poured  out  at  Valmont,  and 
one  at  Golden  City.  He  had  fished  for  trout  in  Middle  Park, 
at  the  base  of  a  monument  of  the  tertiary  ages  that  lifted  its 
head  2,000  feet  into  the  air. 

The  waters  falling  on  the  elevated  platform  for  vast  pe 
riods  had  worn  out  the  valleys,  sculptured  the  mountain- 
peaks,  and  cut  channels  for  themselves  to  the  sea.  The 
plains  were  thus  finished  off  by  the  debris  of  the  mountains. 
The  mountains  again  were  crumbled  down  by  frost,  the  iron 
cubes  of  the  lodes  decomposed,  some  of  the  gold  settling 
into  the  lodes,  making  their  backs  very  rich,  some  of  it 
being  carried  down  in  low  places,  constituting  the  placer 
diggings.  The  clouds  were  the  artists  that  shaped  the  con 
tour  of  the  earth.  The  length  of  time,  amount  of  motion, 
and  vast  work  of  the  waters,  had  impressed  him  most  in 
thirteen  years'  study  of  nature.  When  the  mountains  were 
uplifted,  the  rock  strata  were  pent  up  at  the  edges,  the  soft 
ones  were  then  washed  out  by  the  water,  leaving  the  harder 
strata  standing.  Hence  the  parallel  ridges  of  red  sandstone 
at  the  base  of  the  mountains,  hundreds  of  feet  high,  called 
"hog's- back."  This  sandstone  formation  was  9,700  feet 
thick,  which  measured  the  distance  this  grand  plateau  in  the 
middle  Colorado  was  lifted  up. 

As  we  enter  the  South  Park  at  Montgomery,  we  seem  to 
be  walled  in  by  towering  mountains.  We  are  in  Lincoln 
Park,  containing  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  at  the  base  of 
Mount  Lincoln.  Lakes  fed  from  eternal  snow-banks  bound 
their  waters  over  rocks  from  two  hundred  to  nine  hundred 
feet  high.  There  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  cas 
cades  pouring  into  this  little  park.  Sitting  there  with  a 
friend  a  short  time  ago,  he  had  witnessed  the  sudden  gath 
ering  of  a  storm.  The  immense  dense  cloud  seemed  to  give 
a  black  light,  a  shadow — we  were  in  the  land  of  shades. 
His  friend  remarked,  ' '  The  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death. ' ' 
They  sought  shelter  under  the  rocks,  and  watched  the 
breaking  of  the  storm.  Then  came  the  rainbow,  making 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  383 

iridescent  the  rocks  against  which  it  was  flung.  "My 
friends,"  said  the  lecturer,  "I  can  but  exclaim,  O  God  ! 
Creator  of  all,  how  wonderful  are  Thy  works!" — Colorado 
Register,  April,  1868. 


CALIFORNIA. 


iHE  Old  PaJi-Utali,  Lovejoy's  paper,  published 
at  Washoe  City,  Nevada,  paints  the  following 
flattering  but  truthful  picture  of  this  State  :— 

How  she  sits  like  a  queen  beside  the  beautiful, 
sunset  sea  !  How  grand  her  place,  how  glorious 
her  destiny  ;  ribbed  round  by  solemn,  guardian 
mountains,  the  pines  are  her  everlasting  sentinels  ;  strange, 
beautiful  flowers,  interwoven,  make  her  diadem  ;  her  scep 
ter  is  virgin  gold,  her  canopy  a  cloudless  sky.  An  empire, 
complete  in  herself!  Were  she,  in  a  moment,  rent  from  the 
continent,  and  made  an  island  of  the  sea,  still  every  needful 
thing  to  make  a  nation  great  would  be  found,  either  de 
veloped,  or  a  living  germ  in  her  sustaining  breast.  How 
proud  she  sits,  her  Golden  Gate  swung  backward  for  the 
world's  great  ships  to  enter  ;  her  mighty  land-locked  bay, 
at  rest,  an  anchorage  where  the  whole  world's  ships  might 
ride.  That  bay,  beautiful  at  first,  and  now  with  glory  a 
thousand  times  enhanced  by  that  city  that  came,  at  the 
touch  of  Midas,  and  unfolded  its  glittering  splendor  on  the 
still  bay' s  sandy  shore.  Beyond  these,  stretching  away, 
mile  after  mile,  in  incomprehensible  vastness,  sleep  her  fer 
tile  plains,  waiting  for  the  coming  millions  who  are  to 
people  them.  And  last  of  all,  her  moveless  bulwark  of 
adamant  and  gold.  Her  people  too,  how  loyal,  how  brave 
and  true,  how  appropriate  for  such  a  home,  how  worthy, 
as  a  whole,  to  be  fathers  and  mothers  of  that  people  who 
are  to  see  the  Queen  of  the  Pacific  in  the  full  fruition  of  her 
glory.  Leal  and  true  Californians  !  no  stain  is  on  your  loy 
alty,  and  when  the  cries  of  dying  men  come  flashing  to  your 
ears,  your  golden  ingots  are  flung  down  as  though  they  were 


384  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

but  water.  Fair  land  !  in  thought  it  seems  as  though  tliou 
wert  the  last  created,  and  that  in  thee  was  centered,  by 
Omnipotence,  the  excellencies  of  every  other  clime. — Dec. 
1863. 


THE    MOUNTAINS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

UGH  has  been  written  by  many  able  writers 
descriptive  of  the  varied  scenery  of  California  ; 
but,  to  get  a  correct  idea,  its  mountains  should 
be  visited  at  different  seasons  of  the  year.  The 
traveler  who  visits  the  highlands  of  California 
in  early  spring,  or  during  the  summer  months,  can  not  fail 
of  being  deeply  impressed  with  the  imposing  grandeur  of 
its  scenery — its  foaming  cataracts,  hedged  with  rough  walls 
of  granite  ;  its  towering  mountains,  capped  with  everlasting 
snow,  while  their  sides  are  covered  with  a  dense  forest  of 
the  noblest  trees  ;  its  broad  valleys  and  sequestered  glens, 
dressed  in  all  the  foliaceous  beauty  of  spring,  luxuriant 
with  thrifty  and  well  cultivated  vegetation  ;  while  from  the 
dark  recesses  of  the  mountains  meandering  streamlets  come 
gushing  forth,  gliding  merrily  along  until  lost  in  distance, 
or  sinking  in  some  deep  chasm,  to  burst  forth  again  with 
renewed  vigor  in  some  dark  forest,  where  quiet  has  dwelt 
for  ages  undisturbed  except  by  murmuring  waters  and  the 
sigh  of  the  gentle  mountain  zephyr  whose  breath  sways  the 
lofty  pine.  Or,  as  the  visitor  stands  on  the  shore  of  one  of 
the  many  romantic  lakes  that  lie  sleeping  in  seclusion, 
"environed  by  mountains  studded  with  lofty  trees,"  its 
banks  lined  with  dense  underwood  hung  with  rich  foliage, 
and  nestling  in  its  clustering  vines  a  charm  that  no  man  can 
withstand  ;  and  as  the  fragrance  of  many  flowers  is  wafted 
over  the  silent  waters  of  the  lake,  and  you  breathe  the 
grateful  odor,  it  can  not  fail  to  awake  in  the  soul  of  every 
man  (who  allows  his  thoughts  to  range  outside  the  citadel 
of  selfishness  or  believes  in  a  Creator),  a  lively  spirit  of 
admiration,  and  bring  into  action  that  unaccountable 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP  BOOK.  385 

emotion  that  environs  the  heart  of  every  lover  of  nature 
and  dwells  in  the  soul  of  every  true  man.  The  man  who  is 
familiar  with,  and  speaks  disparagingly  of,  the  scenery  of 
California,  may  be  justly  looked  on  with  distrust,  as  one 
who  would  not  fail  to  do  wrong  where  an  opportunity 
offered. 

But  when  the  icy  hand  of  winter  spreads  her  mantle  of 
snow  over  mountain  and  valley,  covering  the  smooth  waters 
of  the  lakes  with  a  crust  of  glittering  ice,  the  traveler  bids 
adieu  to  the  mountains  and  seeks  a  more  genial  climate. 
Has  the  country,  that  a  few  weeks  since  was  clothed  in  the 
rich  foliage  of  summer,  lost  its  charm  ?  We  think  not,  but 
believe  that  there  still  remains  something  ^equally  as  inter 
esting.  Look  at  the  extensive  range  of  lofty  mountains,  at 
whose  base  the  crisped  brook  still  resounds  :  listen  to  the 
cataract1  s  thunders,  as  it  leaps  from  the  crown  of  some  high 
precipice,  dashing  through  some  deep  gorge,  heralding  its 
course  by  the  echoing  mountains,  until  it  makes  its  debouch 
upon  broad  and  fertile  plains,  where  it  soon  becomes  mighty 
in  its  power,  and  sports  as  toys  on  its  bosom  the  most 
powerful  mechanism  of  man.  Look  again  :  upon  the  moun 
tains,  as  they  reflect  the  oblique  rays  of  the  morning  sun — 
on  the  frost-covered  pines,  that  stretch  along  their  sides,  or 
stand  in  groups  at  their  base,  making  them  resemble  richly 
tesselated  monuments  capped  with  crowns  of  silver,  and 
hung  with  the  most  gaudy  tinsel.  Is  there  not  a  charm  in 
this  ?  If  it  is  not  as  pleasant  as  the  more  verdant  scenes  of 
spring  and  summer,  it  is  as  instructive.  Does  it  not  teach 
us  a  lesson  of  life,  opening  wide  the  text-book  of  nature, 
wherein  we  may  study  the  four  stages  of  manhood :  the 
spring-time  of  youth,  the  summer  of  manhood,  the  fall  of 
age,  the  winter  of  death?  —  Downiemlle  Sierra  Citizen, 
Aug.,  1860. 

25 


386  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


EARTHQUAKE    WAVES    ON    THE    PACIFIC. 

AN  earthquake  wave  which  followed  the  recent  eruption 
in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  was  transmitted  to  this  coast  and 
recorded  on  the  Government  self-registering  tide-gauges 
at  San  Diego,  San  Francisco,  and  Astoria,  in  about  live 
hours.  On  the  23d  of  December,  1854,  a  similar  wave  was 
transmitted  from  the  coast  of  Japan  to  the  Golden  Gate 
in  twelve  hours  and  thirty-eight  minutes.  It  will  be  recol 
lected  that  this  earthquake  wave  caused  the  wreck  of  the 
Russian  frigate  Diana,  in  the  port  of  Simoda,  and  great 
loss  of  life. 

These  facts,  which  are  derived  from  the  best  authority, 
convey  a  very  impressive  idea  of  the  tremendous  power  re 
quired  to  disturb  the  whole  body  of  an  ocean,  for  a  distance 
of  from  3,000  to  5,000  miles,  by  a  movement  distinct  from 
its  ordinary  tidal  swing.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  revulsion 
of  the  great  tidal  wave  at  Hawaii  reached  this  coast,  distant 
over  2,000  miles,  in  five  hours,  and  was  observed  along  a 
stretch  of  shore  over  thirteen  geographical  degrees  in  length. 
—S.  F.  Bulletin,  June  13,  1868. 


EARTHQUAKES    IN    THE    INTERIOR. 


REMARKABLE  series  of  earthquake  shocks 
was  experienced  in  the  interior  of  this  State 
and  Nevada,  about  nine  o'  clock  on  the  even 
ing  of  May  30,  1868,  of  which  no  trace  was 
felt  at  San  Francisco,  or  north  and  south  of  a 
line  from  Sacramento  to  Fort  Churchill.  Although  no  dam 
age  is  recorded,  the  jolts  were  sharp  enough  to  rack  the 
buildings  in  Virginia,  and  frighten  people  out  of  doors. 
The  occurrence  of  such  shocks  in  unusual  places,  is  one  of 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  387 

the  most  puzzling  facts  to  those  who  theorize  upon  the 
causes  of  volcanic  disturbances,  and  is  apparently  inconsis 
tent  with  the  idea  that  these  causes  are  decreasing  in  the 
force  and  frequency  of  their  operation.  If  such  disturb 
ances  were  confined  to  the  localities  and  neighborhood  of 
active  volcanoes,  the  phenomena  would  be  more  intelligible  ; 
but  their  shifting  occurrence,  with  peculiar  severity,  in  lo 
calities  remote  from  any  vent,  as  in  the  valley  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  and  in  the  plateau  of  Nevada,  complicates  the  study 
of  causes,  and  inclines  us  to  the  opinion  that  sudden  and 
tremendous  outbursts  are  probable  anywhere.  Nevada, 
which  has  seldom  felt  the  shocks  experienced  in  San  Fran 
cisco,  was  evidently  at  a  comparatively  recent  period,  the 
seat  of  a  very  lively  arid  extensive  display  of  volcanic  en 
ergy.  The  old  craters,  the  surface  distribution  of  pumice 
and  ashes,  the  hot  springs,  are  sufficient  proof  on  this  score ; 
but  there  are  no  such  evidences  in  the  lower  Mississippi  Val 
ley,  where  remarkable  disturbances  have  been  noted  on 
several  occasions  since  the  region  became  known  to  white 
men.  But  much  more  remarkable  disturbances,  independ 
ent  of  active  volcanoes,  have  been  recorded.  Mention  was 
made  in  our  last  issue  of  the  sudden  elevation  of  a  volcanic 
mountain,  1,600  feet  high,  in  Central  America,  in  1770. 
Humboldt  describes  in  his  voyages  a  more  wonderful  erup 
tion  yet,  which  took  place  in  Mexico  about  fifty  years 
before  his  visit  to  that  country — or,  say  about  1759.  The 
locality  of  this  eruption  was  the  Intendancy  of  Valladolid. 
The  country  was  a  fertile  plain,  nowhere  more  than  2,600 
feet  above  the  sea,  over  one  hundred  miles  from  the  coast, 
and  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  miles  from  any  active 
volcano.  Till  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  fields 
of  sugar-cane,  indigo,  and  cotton,  and  fine  gardens,  sup 
porting  several  villages,  covered  this  plain.  Suddenly  one 
day  subterranean  noises  were  heard,  accompanied  by  nu 
merous  dreadful  earthquakes,  lasting  through  fifty  or  sixty 
days.  After  an  interval  of  a  few  days,  the  sounds  and 
shocks  recommenced,  a  tract  of  ground  from  three  to  four 
square  miles  rose  up  in  the  shape  of  a  bladder,  and  the  con 
vexity  steadily  increased  in  height  to  five  hundred  and  twenty 


388  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

feet,  when  flames  issued  from  an  area  of  half  a  square  league, 
fragments  of  broken  rocks  were  thrown  up  to  great  heights 
through  a  thick  cloud  of  ashes  illuminated  by  fire,  and  the 
softened  surface  of  the  earth  swelled  like  an  agitated  sea. 
Two  rivers  poured  into  the  burning  chasms,  invigorating 
the  fire  by  the  decomposition  of  their  waters.  Thousands 
of  small  volcanic  cones  rose  over  the  plain,  and  in  the  midst 
six  large  ones  arose,  from  1,300  to  1,700  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  surrounding  land.  The  most  elevated  of  these  cones 
was  the  great  volcano  of  Jorullo,  which  belched  forth  fire, 
smoke,  rocks,  and  lava,  furiously  for  about  nine  months, 
after  which  its  eruptions  gradually  ceased.  The  plain  was, 
of  course,  desolated,  and  the  people  abandoned  it  in  terror. 
Such  paroxysmal  outbreaks  as  this  are  naturally  recalled  to 
memory  by  local  shocks  like  those  in  Nevada,  and  confirm 
the  impression  that  the  occasional  tremblars  of  San  Fran 
cisco  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  especially  threatening. — S. 
F.  Bulletin,  May  30,  1868. 


GREAT     VOLCANO     ERUPTION'S. 

OW,  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  a  mere  scratch 
on  the  surface  of  our  globe,  which  is  nearly 
8,000  miles  in  diameter  (for  so  the  depth  of  only 
one  mile  must  be  considered),  brings  us  to  a  tem 
perature  of  105  degrees,  we  have  only  to  descend 
in  imagination  to  the  still  comparatively  slight  depth  of 
twenty  miles  to  find  the  earth's  crust  red-hot,  while,  if  the 
temperature  continues  to  increase  regularly  according  to  the 
same  law,  we  should  come  at  no  very  great  depth  beyond 
on  a  liquid  sea  of  fire.  But  it  is  probable  that  this  molten 
mass  is  a  greater  distance  from  us  than  this  theory  would 
place  it.  Astronomical  calculations  tend  to  prove  that  the 
crust  of  the  earth  is  at  least  eight  hundred  miles  thick,  and 
that  the  coating  of  our  globe  must  be  extremely  solid  and 
rigid  to  enable  our  planet  to  preserve  its  figure.  But  the 
farther  we  remove  the  seat  of  the  subterranean  force  from 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  389 

us,  the  more  must  we  be  struck  by  its  great  power.  Earth 
quakes  are  indeed  terrific  evidence  of  mysterious  dynamic 
laws  ;  but  it  is  only  when  the  subterranean  expansive  force 
breaks  through  the  earth's  crust,  and  after  violent  earth- 
throes  a  volcano  becomes  active,  that  we  obtain  a  just  idea 
of  the  forces  at  work  in  nature's  secret  laboratory.  A 
grand  example  of  the  tremendous  action  of  this  force  may  be 
seen  in  the  Monte  Nuevo  of  the  Phlegrsean  fields,  which 
was  formed  in  September,  1558,  on  the  site  of  the  Lucrine 
Lake,  once  famous  for  its  oysters.  The  eruption  continued 
without  intermission  two  days  and  two  nights,  and  on  the 
third  day  people  climbed  to  the  top  of  the  new  hill,  four 
hundred  and  forty  feet  high,  and  looked  into  the  crater,  four 
hundred  and  twenty-one  feet  deep,  within  which  stones  were 
boiling  up.  The  mountain  has  remained  quiescent  ever 
since  that  period.  On  the  other  hand,  the  volcano  of  Izalco, 
in  Central  America,  rose  suddenly  to  the  height  of  1,600  feet 
on  February  23,  1770,  and  has  remained  since  in  such  con 
stant  activity  as  to  serve  as  a  beacon  to  mariners.  The  vol 
cano  of  Tomboro,  in  Sumbawa,  is  another  amazing  evidence 
of  subterranean  force.  In  1815,  it  yielded  ashes  and  scoriae 
sufficient  to  form  three  mountains,  each  equal  in  cubic  con 
tents  to  Mount  Blanc,  or  to  cover  the  whole  of  Germany 
with  scoriae  two  feet  deep.  But  even  more  tremendous  is 
the  volcano  of  Mauna  Loa,  a  huge  dome-shaped  mountain 
in  Hawaii,  nearly  14,000  feet  above  the  sea,  formed  chiefly 
by  the  repeated  outflows  of  a  highly  liquid  lava  boiling  up 
and  cascading  over  the  lips  of  a  central  vent  at  its  summit. 
The  phenomena  of  this  volcano  are  on  the  most  stupendous 
scale.  The  highest  crater,  which  is  circular,  8,000  feet  in 
diameter,  and  830  feet  deep,  is  frequently  filled  by  the  well 
ing  up  of  the  lava  from  the  vents  at  its  bottom.  During  one 
of  the  latest  eruptions,  the  lava  stream  extended  sixty-five 
miles,  and  averaged  four  miles  in  width,  and  twelve  feet  in 
depth.  Its  discharge  was  accompanied  by  columns  of  fire, 
scorise  of  filamentous  lava  (called  Pele's  hair),  and  dense 
vapor,  which  towered  over  the  crater  to  the  height  of  eight 
hundred  feet  for  twenty  days,  darkening  the  sun,  and  ob 
scuring  every  object  a  few  yards  distant ;  while  from  the 


390  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

surface  of  the  lava  currents  clouds  of  steam  rolled  upward. 
On  this  occasion  it  is  calculated  that  within  ten  months, 
15,400,000,000  cubic  feet  of  molten  matter  were  blown  out 
of  the  crater,  and  that  the  lava  overflowed  an  area  of 
200,000  acres  in  the  same  period  of  time. — Frazef  s  Maga 
zine. 


EXISTENCE    OR    LIFE. 

S"  many  a  tombstone  where  it  is  written,  "Here 
lies  so-and-so,  aged  seventy  years,"  the  true 
inscription  would  read,  "  In  memory  of  a  soul 
who  in  seventy  years  lived  about  five  minutes, 
and  that  was  when  he  first  found  himself  in 
love."  A  dandy  lives  not  by  the  clock  or  almanac,  but 
from  one  neck-tie  to  another.  A  fashionable  woman  lives 
from  one  wrinkle  to  another.  The  politician  from  one  Pres 
idential  election  to  another.  The  epicure  from  turtle  to 
turtle.  The  philosopher  from  the  perception  of  one  prin 
ciple  to  the  dawning  of  another.  The  philanthropist  from 
one  act  of  charity  to  another. 

Think  of  the  crowning  hours  of  men' s  lives,  if  you  would 
learn  how  much  living  can  be  crowded  into  a  minute ;  of 
Copernicus,  when  he  first  saw  the  sun  stop  in  its  career, 
and  the  earth,  like  a  moth,  begin  to  flutter  round  it ;  of 
Newton,  when  the  law  of  gravity  was  first  breaking  into 
the  inclosure  of  his  philosophy,  and  at  the  same  glance  he 
saw  his  own  name  written  forever  on  the  starry  sky  ;  of  L<3 
Yerrier,  when  from  Berlin  word  came  back  that  a  new 
planet  had  been  evoked,  by  the  sorcery  of  his  mathematics, 
to  spin  a  wider  thread  of  reflected  light  than  had  ever  before 
been  traced  ;  of  Washington,  when  the  English  general's 
sword  was  surrendered  to  him  at  Yorktown  ;  of  Columbus, 
when  on  his  deck,  "  before  the  upright  man  there  arose  a 
light" — when  San  Salvador  lifted  its  candle  to  his  sight, 
and  shot  its  ray  across  on  Castile ;  and  for  the  jeers  of  a 
continent,  the  mutiny  of  his  men,  he  was  repaid  as  he  saw 
that  the  round  idea  that  haunted  him  was  demonstrated. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  391 

To  pictures  like  these  we  must  turn  to  understand  the 
untranslatable  bliss  of  which  a  moment  is  capable— to 
learn  what  fast  living  really  is.—  Rev.  T.  Starr  King. 


BULK    OF    GOLD    IN"   THE    WOULD. 


CCORDINGr  to  the  estimates  given  in   the 
Evening  Post  three  weeks  ago,  the  whole 
amount  of  gold  in  the  world  at  the  present 
moment    is    about    5,950,000,000    dollars    in 
value.     It  may  be  of  interest  to  see  what  the 
bulk  of  this  amount  of  gold  would  be*  if  it  was  all  melted 
and  run  together.     Pure  gold  is  more  than  nineteen  times 
as  heavy  as  water,  and  a  cubic  foot  of  water  weighs  1,000 
ounces  avoirdupois.      A  cubic  foot  of  gold,  then,  would 
weight  over  19,000   ounces  avoirdupois;   and  every  such 
ounce  of  fine  gold  is  worth,  according  to  our  coinage,  some 
what  more  than  eighteen  dollars.     So  then  the  whole  cubic 
foot  of  gold  would  be  worth  a  little  more  than  a  third  of  a 
million  dollars.    A  cubic  yard  of  solid  gold  would  be  worth 
twenty-seven  times  as  much  as  that,  or  over  nine  million  dol 
lars  ;  and  six  hundred  and  sixty  cubic  yards  would  contain 
somewhat  more  than  the  5,950,000,000  dollars  gold  in  the 
world.     These  six  hundred  and  sixty  cubic  yards  would 
be  contained  within  a  room  five  yards  high,  eight  yards 
wide,  and  six  yards  long  ;  say  a  good  sized  parlor  or  a  store 
of  moderate  size.     "But,"  says  some  one,  "gold  is  so  very 
malleable  that  even  this  small  bulk  of  it  would  gild  over  the 
whole  earth."      But  he  either   over-estimates  the  mallea 
bility  of  gold,  or,  more  likely,  under-estimates  the  size  of 
the  earth.     It  takes  1,280,000  leaves  of  the  thinnest  gold 
foil  to  make  an  inch  in  thickness,  or  about  fifteen  millions 
and  a  third  to  make  a  foot,  or  about  46,000  to  a  yard.     A 
cubic  yard  of  gold,  therefore,  could  be  beaten  out  so  as  to 
cover  46,000,000  square  yards,  somewhat  less  than  10,000 
acres,  for  there  are  4, 480  square  yards  to  the  acre.     Then,  as 
there  are  six  hundred  and  forty  acres  to  the  square  mile, 


392  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  whole  six  hundred  and  sixty  cubic  yards  of  gold  could 
"be  beaten  out  so  as  to  cover  about  10,000  square  miles — 
that  is,  a  tract  only  one  hundred  miles  square,  less  than  the 
extent  of  Vermont,  and  a  little  more  than  a  fifth  of  either 
New  York  or  Pennsylvania. — GOT.  N.  Y.  ^Evening  Post. 


THE    CRY    OF    A   LOST    SOUL. 

[THE  Lost  Soul,  Alma  per dida,  is  the  term  applied  by  the 
Indians  to  a  bird  whose  melancholy  cry  is  heard  at  night  on 
the  margins  of  the  Amazon.  ] 

Lsr  that  black  forest,  where,  when  day  is  done, 
With  a  snake's  stillness  glides  the  Amazon 
Darkly  from  sunset  to  the  rising  sun, 

A  cry,  as  of  the  pained  heart  of  the  wood, 
The  long,  despairing  moan  of  solitude 
And  darkness  and  the  absence  of  all  good, 

Startles  the  traveler,  with  a  sound  so  drear, 

So  full  of  hopeless  agony  and  fear, 

His  heart  stands  still  and  listens  like  his  ear. 

The  guide,  as  if  he  heard  a  dead-bell  toll, 
Starts,  drops  his  oar  against  the  gunwale's  thole, 
Crosses  himself,  and  whispers,  "A  lost  soul !" 

"  No,  Senor,  not  a  bird.     I  know  it  well, — 
It  is  the  pained  soul  of  some  infidel 
Or  cursed  heretic  that  cries  from  hell. 

"  Poor  fool !  with  hope  still  mocking  his  despair, 
He  wanders,  shrieking  on  the  midnight  air 
For  human  pity  and  for  Christian  prayer. 

"  Saints  strike  him  dumb  !     Our  holy  Mother  hath 
No  prayer  for  him  who,  sinning  unto  death, 
Burns  always  in  the  furnace  of  God's  wrath !" 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  393 

Thus  to  the  baptized  pagan's  cruel  lie, 
Lending  new  horror  to  that  mournful  cry, 
The  voyager  listens,  making  no  reply. 

Dim  burns  the  boat-lamp  :  shadows  deepen  round, 
From  giant  trees  with  snake-like  creepers  wound, 
And  the  black  water  glides  without  a  sound. 

But  in  the  traveler's  heart  a  secret  sense 
Of  nature  plastic  to  benign  intents, 
And  an  eternal  good  in  Providence, 

Lifts  to  the  starry  calm  of  heaven  his  eyes ; 
And  lo !  rebuking  all  earth's  ominous  cries, 
The  Cross  of  pardon  lights  the  tropic  skies  ! 

"  Father  of  all !"  he  urges  his  strong  plea, 
"  Thou  lovest  all :  thy  erring  child  may  be 
Lost  to  himself,  but  never  lost  to  Thee  ! 

"  All  souls  are  Thine ;  the  wings  of  morning  bear 
None  from  that  Presence  which  is  everywhere, 
Nor  hell  itself  can  hide,  for  Thou  art  there. 

"  Through  sins  of  sense,  perversities  of  will, 

Through  doubt  and  pain,  through  guilt  and  shame  and  ill, 

Thy  pitying  eye  is  on  Thy  creature  still. 

"  Wilt  thou  not  make,  Eternal  Source  and  Goal ! 
In  Thy  long  years,  life's  broken  circle  whole, 
And  change  to  praise  the  cry  of  a  lost  soul  ?" 

JOHN  G.  WIIITTIER. 


CAKIB    SCOUT    BOAT    ON    THE    LOOKOUT. 

iHE  Caribs  were  the  boldest  of  the  West  Indian 
tribes,  and  their  name  has  remained  almost  a 
synonym  for  cruelty  and  daring.  Europeans 
found  them  the  terror  of  the  milder  tribes,  for, 
at  home  on  the  sea  in  the  midst  of  storms,  they 
swept  from  island  to  island,  everywhere  as  con 
querors,  or  as  lords,  meeting  man  as  they  met  the  elements, 
undismayed. 


394  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

The  Spaniard  with  his  mimic  thunder,  his  death-dealing 
fire-arms,  sent  no  terror  through  their  breasts  ;  but  discern 
ing  in  them  a  more  potent  foe,  they  resorted  to  greater  skill 
and  precautions  in  war.  Scout  boats,  light  structures,  built 
like  the  birch  canoes  of  our  river  and  lake  tribes,  but 
firmer  and  better  adapted  for  the  sea,  were  sent  out  to 
explore  and  give  notice  of  hostile  movements. 

The  Caribs  have  now  almost  entirely  passed  away,  but  a 
few  still  linger  in  Trinidad,  Dominica,  and  St.  Vincent, 
as  well  as  on  the  shores  of  South  America. — Chimney 
Corner. 


SIGNIFICANT    NAMES. 


THE  "magnet"  has  its  name  from  Magnesia.  The 
"bayonet",  tells  us  that  it  was  first  made  at  Bayonne ; 
"worsted,"  that  it  was  first  spun  at  a  village  of  the  same 
name  in  the  vicinity  of  Norwich;  "cambrics,"  that  they 
reached  us  from  Cambrao  ;  "damask,"  from  Damascus  ; 
the  "damson,"  also  the  "  Damascene,"  or  Damascus  plum  ; 
"dimity,"  from  Damietta ;  "cord  wain,"  or  "cordovan," 
from  Cordova;  "currants,"  Corinth  ;  "  indigo"  (indicum), 
from  India;  "agates,"  from  a  Sicilian  river,  Achates; 
"jalap,"  from  Jalapa,  a  town  in  Mexico;  "parchment," 
from  Pergamum  ;  the  "guinea,"  that  it  was  originally  coined 
(in  the  year  1663)  of  gold  brought  from  the  African  coast 
so-called;  "camlet,"  that  it  was  woven  in  part  of  camel's 
hair.  The  fashion  of  the  cravat  was  borrowed  from  the 
Croats,  or  "  Crobats,"  as  they  used,  in  the  sixteenth  cen 
tury,  to  be  called.  Such  has  been  the  manufacturing  pro 
cess  of  England,  that  English  calicoes  and  muslins  are  now 
sent  to  India  and  the  East ;  yet  the  words  give  standing 
witness  that  England  once  imported  them  thence,  for 
"calico"  is  from  Calicut,  and  "muslin"  from  Moussul,  a 
city  in  Asiatic  Turkey. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  395 


A     WONDERFUL     CASE THE     MAX    WHO     HAD    A     CROWBAR     SHOT 

THROUGH    HIS    SKULL. 

« 

y  E  had  lost  all  track  of  late  years,  of  the  man 
who  recovered  after  having  had  a  crowbar  shot 
through  his  brain,  by  the  premature  explosion  of 
a  blast  which  he  was  tamping  in  Vermont,  some 
twenty  years  ago.  But  the  following  account 
of  proceedings  in  the  Massachusetts  Medical  So 
ciety  last  Wednesday,  not  only  revives  this  wonderful  case, 
but  presents  many  hitherto  unpublished  facts  in  it.  It  is 
highly  interesting.  Probably  no  such  case  ever  occurred 
before  in  the  history  of  the  world.  We  published  accounts 
of  it  many  years  ago ;  but  nothing  so  full,  precise,  interest 
ing  and  authentic,  has  ever  been  given  to  the  public,  con 
cerning  this  case,  as  the  following.  That  crowbar,  that  has 
penetrated  the  inner  recesses  of  "thought's  mysterious 
seat,"  without  destroying  life,  was  exhibited,  together  with 
the  skull  through  which  it  passed  : — 

A    WONDERFUL    SKULL STORY    OF  A    REMARKABLE    CURE A    PRESENT 

TO    THE    MASSACHUSETTS    MEDICAL    SOCIETY. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society  on 
Wednesday,  Dr.  John  M.  Harlow,  physician  and  surgeon, 
of  Woburn,  but  formerly  of  Cavendish,  Vermont,  read  a 
paper  containing  the  history  of  a  most  interesting  case  of 
injury  to  the  head,  and  presented  to  the  meeting  the  verita 
ble  skull  which  sustained  the  injury. 

This  case  occurred  some  twenty  years  ago,  in  Cavendish, 
Vermont,  and  was  described  at  length  in  the  Traveler  a 
few  days  later.  On  the  13th  of  September,  1848,  Phineas 
P.  Gage,  foreman  of  a  gang  of  men  engaged  in  blasting  a 
deep  cut  in  the  continuation  of  the  Rutland  and  Burlington 
road,  had  a  tamping  iron  blown  through  his  brains,  and  re 
covered  within  sixty  days,  living  twelve  years  after.  The 
case  caused  great  discussion  when  reported  by  Dr.  Harlow 
in  the  medical  journals  at  that  time,  and  it  was  largely  dis 
believed,  many  eminent  surgeons  declaring  the  occurrence 


396  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

as  described,  to  be  a  physiological  impossibility.  Dr.  Har- 
low,  in  presenting  the  paper  to-day,  justly  said,  that  it  is 
due  to  science  that  a  case  so  grave,  and  succeeded  by  such 
remarkable  results,  should  not  be  lost  sight  of,  and  that  its 
subsequent  story  should  have  a  permanent  record. 

The  tamping-iron  was  three  and  half  feet  in  length,  one 
and  a  quarter  inch  thick,  and  pointed  at  one  end,  the 
taper  being  seven  inches  long,  and  the  diameter  of  the  point 
a  quarter  of  an  inch.  It  weighed  thirteen  pounds.  The 
point  was  upward,  and  the  iron  smooth. 

Gage  was  a  perfectly  healthy,  strong  and  active  young 
man,  twenty-five  years  of  age,  of  nervous  temperament, 
five  and  a  half  feet  in  height,  average  weight  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds,  possessing  an  iron  will  as  well  as  an  iron 
frame,  muscular  system  remarkably  well  developed,  having 
had  scarcely  a  day' s  illness  from  childhood  up. 

As  described  in  the  paper  read,  it  appears  that  a  drill 
hole  had  been  charged  with  powder,  and  he  was  about 
tamping  it  in  (or,  more  popularly,  ramming  it  down),  when 
his  attention  was  called  for  a  moment.  Looking  over  his 
shoulder  at  his  men,  he  at  the  same  moment  rammed  down 
the  iron,  supposing  his  assistant  had  poured  sand  on  the 
powder,  as  is  the  custom.  The  iron  struck  fire  from  the 
rock,  the  charge  exploded,  and  the  iron  was  driven  up  into 
his  cheek  and  out  of  the  top  of  his  head,  high  in  the  air, 
and  was  afterward  found  several  rods  distant,  smeared 
with  blood  and  brains. 

The  missile  entered,  by  its  pointed  end,  the  left  side  of 
the  face,  immediately  anterior  to  the  angle  of  the  lower  jaw, 
and  passing  obliquely  upward  and  slightly  backward, 
emerged  out  of  the  top  of  the  head  in  the  median  line,  at 
the  back  part  of  the  frontal  bone,  near  the  coronal  suture. 
The  ordinary  reader  will  understand  it  better,  if  we  say 
that,  pointing  upward,  it  entered  the  cheek  outside  the 
teeth,  and  under  the  cheek  bone,  went  inside  an  inch  be 
hind  the  eye,  and  out  of  the  top  of  the  head  in  the  center, 
two  inches  back  of  the  line  where  the  forehead  and  hair 
meet. 

The  patient  was  thrown  on  Ids  back,  and  gave  a  few  con- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  39 T 

vulsive  motions  of  the  extremities,  but  spoke  in  a  few 
minutes.  He  was  taken  three-quarters  of  a  mile  in  a  sitting 
position  in  a  cart,  got  out  of  the  cart  himself  with  the  aid 
of  his  men,  and  an  hour  afterward,  with  the  assistance  of 
Dr.  Harlow  holding  his  arm,  walked  up  a  flight  of  stairs 
to  his  room.  He  was  conscious,  but  exhausted  from  loss 
of  blood,  which  found  its  way  from  the  mouth  into  the 
stomach,  and  was  ejected  as  often  as  every  fifteen  or  twenty 
minutes  by  vomiting.  His  bed  and  person  were  soon  a  gore 
of  blood. 

One  piece  of  the  skull  had  been  broken  out  in  fragments  ; 
another  piece  was  raised  and  thrown  back,  like  a  door,  the 
scalp  serving  as  a  hinge  ;  and  on  the  opposite  of  the  wound 
there  was  another  fracture  and  an  elevation.  The  globe  of 
the  left  eye  was  partially  protruded  from  its  orbit,  the  left 
side  of  the  face  was  more  prominent  than  the  right.  The 
opening  in  the  skull  was  two  inches  wide  by  three  and  a 
half  long,  and  the  brain  was  hanging  in  shreds  on  the  hair. 
The  pulsation  of  the  brain  could  be  distinctly  seen,  and  the 
doctor  passed  his  finger  in  its  whole  length,  without  the 
patient  saying  he  felt  pain. 

The  paper  gives  an  account  of  the  treatment  of  the  case. 
In  fifty-nine  days  the  patient  was  abroad.  On  the  third 
day  there  was  inflammation  and  some  delirium,  and  during 
several  weeks  there  was  occasional  delirium  ;  for  tAVO  weeks 
of  the  time  the  patient  lay  in  a  stupid  condition,  and  his 
death  was  expected  and  his  grave-clothes  prepared.  On 
the  25th  of  November  he  went  in  a  close  carriage,  thirty 
miles,  to  his  home  in  Lebanon. 

The  subsequent  history  of  the  case  is  interesting.  Gage 
came  back  to  Cavendish  in  April  in  fair  health  and  strength, 
having  his  tamping-iron  with  him,  and  he  carried  it  with 
him  till  the  day  of  his  death,  twelve  years  after.  The  effect 
of  the  injury  appears  to  have  been  the  destruction  of  the 
equilibrium  between  his  intellectual  faculties  and  the  ani 
mal  propensities.  He  was  now  capricious,  fitful,  irreverent, 
impatient  of  restraint,  vacillating,  a  youth  in  intellectual 
capacity  and  manifestations,  a  man  in  physical  system  and 
passions.  His  physical  recovery  was  complete,  but  those 


398  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

who  once  knew  him  as  a  shrewd,  smart,  energetic,  persistent 
"business  man,  recognized  the  change  in  his  mental  character. 
The  balance  of  his  mind  was  gone.  He  used  to  give  his 
nephews  and  nieces  wonderful  accounts  of  his  hair-breadth 
escapes,  without  foundation  in  fact,  and  conceived  a  great 
fondness  for  pets. 

He  went  to  various  places,  being  engaged  here  and  there  ; 
was  a  year  and  a  half  in  charge  of  horses  at  a  livery  stable  ; 
was  exhibited  at  Barnum's  Museum  in  New  York  ;  and,  in 
August,  1852,  four  years  after  his  injury,  left  New  England 
forever,  and  went  to  Valparaiso  with  a  man  who  was  going 
to  establish  a  line  of  coaches.  Here  he  lived  eight  years, 
occasionally  driving  a  six-horse  coach,  and  enduring  many 
hardships.  In  1859  his  health  began  to  fail,  and  in  1860  he 
had  a  long  illness,  the  nature  of  which  can  not  now  be 
ascertained. 

He  now  left  Chili,  and  Dr.  Harlow  lost  all  traces  of  him  for 
some  years,  but  finally  found  out  that  the  mother  and  sister 
were  in  San  Francisco,  wrote  to  them,  and  ascertained  that 
Gage  arrived  there  in  1860  ;  worked  with  a  farmer  at  Santa 
Clara,  and,  in  February,  1861,  was  taken  with  epileptic 
fits ;  afterward  he  worked  in  several  places  ;  and,  finally, 
in  May,  1861,  had  a  succession  of  fits,  which  lasted  a  couple 
of  days,  and  carried  him  off.  There  was  no  autopsy  made. 
Dr.  Harlow  made  overtures  for  the  possession  of  the  skull, 
on  account  of  its  scientific  interest,  and  the  world  at  large  is 
under  obligation  to  the  relatives  who  were  willing  to  sur 
render  it  for  the  uses  of  medical  science.  It  appears  that  the 
man  could  see  out  of  his  left  eye,  though  the  lid  was  not 
fully  subject  to  the  will,  and  that  he  was  troubled  with 
uneasiness  in  the  head. 

Dr.  Harlow,  in  summing  up  his  valuable  but  interesting 
paper,  presented  these  views  :— 1st.  The  recovery  is  attrib 
uted  solely  to  the  vis  vitse,  vis  conservatrix,  or,  if  some 
like  it,  vis  medicatrix  naturae.  [In  plain  words,  he  had  a 
good  constitution.]  2d.  This  case  has  been  cited  as  one  of 
recovery ;  physically,  the  recovery  was  nearly  or  quite 
completed  for  the  four  years  immediately  succeeding  the 
injury,  but  ultimately  the  patient  succumbed  to  progressive 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  399 

disease  of  the  brain.  Mentally,  the  recovery  was  only 
partial ;  there  was  no  dementia ;  intellectual  operations 
were  perfect  in  kind,  but  not  in  degree  or  quality. 
3d.  Though  the  case  may  seem  improbable,  yet  the  subject 
was  the  man  for  the  case,  as  his  will,  physique,  and  capacity 
for  endurance  could  scarcely  be  equaled  ;  the  missile  was 
smooth  and  pointed,  dilating  and  wedging  off  rather  than 
lacerating  the  tissues ;  the  bolt  did  little  injury  till  it  en 
tered  the  base  of  the  brain,  and  that  opening  served  as  a 
drain  for  the  blood  and  matter,  and  other  substances  that 
might  have  caused  death  by  compression  ;  the  part  of  the 
brain  traversed  was  the  strongest  for  the  purpose. 

Dr.  Harlow  had  with  him,  and  exhibited,  the  skull  and 
the  iron. 

The  piece  of  skull,  which  was  thrown  backward  like  a 
door,  and  was  afterward  replaced,  had  grown  to  the  oppo 
site  edge  by  a  new  formation  of  bone  plainly  marked  ;  the 
holes  were  large  and  well  defined,  and  the  whole  appear 
ance  of  the  skull  proved  the  truth  of  the  account,  which  has 
also  b'een  verified  by  letters  from  some  of  the  first  men  in 
Cavendish,  Vt.  It  appears  that  early  in  the  history  of  the 
case,  a  number  of  fragments  of  bone  came  down  into  the 
mouth  through  the  openings  in  the  inside,  and  were  voided. 

A  great  deal  of  interest  was  manifested  in  the  examination 
of  these  important  contributions  to  surgical  science,  and  Dr. 
Harlow  was  abundantly  complimented  for  the  persistence 
with  which  he  had  followed  up  the  case  for  nearly  twenty 
years. — Boston  Traveler,  June  4,  1868. 


TRACES    OF    THE    ANCIENT    HALF-CIVILIZED    INDIANS    IN    CALIFORNIA. 


[T  has  often  been  asserted  by  writers  on  this 
State  and  Mexico,  that  no  traces  exist  within 
our  boundaries  of  the  ancient  civilized  Indian 
races  who  are  assumed  by  some  to  have 
passed  across  the  Gila  from  Central  Alta  Cali 
fornia,  and  founded  in  Mexico  the  Toltec  and  Mexican 


400  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

civilizations  ;  passing,  in  their  several  journeys,  through 
Sonora,  Sinaloa,  Durango,  &c.,  until  the  elevated  tropical 
valleys  of  Mexico  and  Central  America,  as  far  even  as  the 
mountains  of  Chiriqui  on  the  Panama  Isthmus,  are  reached. 
Probably  the  civilizations  of  the  Mississippi  valleys  formed 
one  system  of  civilization  ;  those  of  Alta  California,  Chi 
huahua,  and  New  Mexico  formed  another  system  ;  those  of 
Arituaba,  near  Altar,  and  in  Sinaloa,  another  ;  those  of 
Mexico  Valley,  Michoacan,  and  Oaxaca,  another ;  those  of 
Chiapas,  Yucatan,  Nicaragua,  and  Guatemala,  another ; 
and  those  of  Honduras,  Costa  Rica,  and  Chiriqui  the  last. 
The  extent  of  this  mighty,  ancient  Indian  empire  of  the 
interior  uplands  of  North  America  is  truly  wonderful, 
extending  from  the  southern  rim  of  the  Great  Basin  to  the 
Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  lying  on  both  ocean  coasts.  This 
may  veritably  be  termed  the  ruins  of  a  great  empire,  and 
of  a  people  wonderfully  skilled  in  many  arts,  who  have 
left  no  other  traces  behind  them  but  vast  buildings  and 
deserted  fields — their  very  name  and  language  have  expired 
from  the  earth.  The  ruins  of  Oriental  populations  can  bear 
no  comparison  to  it  in  extent  and  marvel. 

There  does  exist,  we  affirm,  some  certain  traces  of  this 
ancient  empire  within  the  boundaries  of  our  State.  A  com 
munication  appeared  in  the  San  Francisco  Bulletin  of  July, 
1861,  from  near  Owen's  Lake,  in  36°  30',  giving  a  highly 
interesting  account  of  a  remnant  of  this  race  still  living  in 
that  vicinity,  and  also  of  many  traces  of  a  more  remote 
civilization  all  through  the  lately  explored  districts  of  the 
Coso  mineral  regions.  A  fact  was  also  noted  by  its  first 
explorer,  Mr.  Farley,  in  1860,  as  to  many  hieroglyphics 
and  ancient  well-worn  roads.  We  were  informed  lately 
by  a  friend  that  in  the  Valley  of  the  Painted  Rock,  which 
is  about  four  days'  journey  east  by  south  from  the  Tejon 
Pass,  exist  many  curious  paintings  in  blue,  white,  and  red, 
with  Indian  figures,  also  Spanish  ones  of  the  time  before 
1820.  In  the  valley  are  now  corrals  for  catching  horses 
from  the  Tulare  plains,  erected  by  the  Californians  since 
1850,  and  an  old  Calif orriian  told  us  the  soldiers  of  an 
expedition  he  was  with  in  1815  reached  these  painted 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  401 

rocks  and  found  the  figures  there  then;  also,  at  another 
place  nearly  opposite  to  the  other  and  which  is  situated 
in  the  Coast  Range,  in  a  Canada  leading  from  the  San  Juan 
arroyo.  which  empties  into  the  Salinas  River  near  the 
Mission  of  San  Miguel.  It  is  not  far  from  the  Sulphur  or 
Carisso  Springs  there,  and  a  few  miles  only  from  the 
borders  of  the  great  valley.  These  last  paintings  are  said 
to  be  on  soft  sandstone  rocks  ;  while  those  of  the  first,  at 
Painted  Rock  Valley,  are  on  a  hard,  bluish  rock,  and  the 
rock  itself  is  about  twenty  feet  square  in  dimensions, 
hollow  in  the  middle,  like  a  bowl  with  the  bottom  knocked 
out.  Other  paintings  or  hieroglyphics  are  found  also 
in  the  vicinity  of  Truckee  Lake.  This  Painted  Rock  Valley 
hollows  oft*  to  the  east,  and  makes  an  immense  plain,  with 
out  wood,  and  with  water  in  small  but  deep  holes.  These 
water  holes  are  only  a  few  feet  across,  and  entirely  bare  of 
wood  near  them,  and  are  nearly  always  situated  on  the  tops 
of  hills.  The  Painted  Rock  Valley  does  not  empty  into  the 
Tulare  plains,  but  into  the  eastern  aspects  of  New  Mexico, 
and  is  south  of  the  Coso  region.  Great  bands  of  the  big 
horn  or  mountain  sheep  are  found  in  its  vicinity,  and  are 
excellent  eating,  but  the  pelt  is  like  that  of  deer,  with  hair, 
and  not  wool.  The  range  of  this  animal  is  all  along  the  San 
Bernardino  Mountains,  into  Northern  Lower  California  as 
far  as  the  ocean,  and  eastward  to  the  head  of  the  Gulf,  the 
mountains  of  the  Gila,  and  all  the  country  north  from  the 
Gila  to  the  southern  rim  of  the  Great  Basin.  The  bands  are 
often  thousands  in  number,  the  males  with  immense  horns, 
while  the  females  are  without  this  appendage. 

This  gentleman  informs  us  that  while  hunting  in  the 
Tulare  lakes  he  found  immense  numbers  of  the  white  swan, 
who  make  their  nests  on  tule  floats,  and  hatch  three  or  four 
young  a  year.  They  will  often  weigh  thirty  pounds,  and 
are  excellent  eating  and  very  fat,  and  much  sought  after  by 
the  hunters.  They  feed  partly  on  the  fresh  water  muscle, 
or  clam,  which  is  found  in  extraordinary  abundance  in  all 
the  Tulare  waters,  completely  paving  the  bottom  and  very 
dangerous  to  walk  on,  as  they  are  thin  and  brittle,  and  will 
cut  like  glass.  The  Indians  feed  greedily  on  them,  and 


t?j 

26 


402  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

latterly  they  are  used  to  fatten  the  hogs  bred  in  that  vicinity. 
This  muscle  has  a  shell  of  silicarious  and  not  calcareous 
formation,  and  weighs  about  three  ounces.  It  is  found  in 
all  the  fresh  water  lagunas  of  the  coast. 

It  is  a  very  singular  thing  that  these  Tulare  lakes  have 
never  been  carefully  explored.  They  are  said  to  have  been 
discovered  by  Padre  Pedro  Font,  in  1775,  in  a  journey 
overland  from  Sonora  to  Monterey  with  Captain  Anzar, 
who  was  afterward  killed  on  the  Colorado  by  the  Yumas. 
In  1819,  a  very  careful  survey  was  made  of  them  in  an 
expedition  from  Monterey,  commanded  by  Captain  J.  M. 
Estudillo,  who  made  a  small,  but  very  detailed,  map  of  the 
Lake  country,  a  copy  of  which  may  be  seen  in  the  Surveyor- 
General'  s  office  in  San  Francisco. 

Another  trace  of  the  ancient  Indians  exists  in  our  State 
on  the  San  Cayatano  Rancho  of  the  Saticoy  Valley,  belong 
ing  to  the  Messrs.  Mores.  This  trace  is  a  large  field  of  some 
five  hundred  acres,  divided  by  exactly  parallel  lines  of 
earth,  formerly  irrigated,  and  which  we  are  assured  is  neither 
the  work  of  the  Mission  Indians  nor  those  existing.  It  is 
divided  exactly  like  those  of  the  Gila  or  Pirn  a  Indians. 
All  the  canal  or  acequia  marks  are  very  old,  and  entirely 
different  from  those  of  the  Mission  Indians,  which  can  be 
seen  in  the  same  valley  in  several  places.  The  field  is 
situated  on  a  dry  mesa,  about  a  league  from  the  ranch 
house,  and  near  the  mouth  of  the  Sespe  arroyo ;  the  supply 
ing  canal  can  be  traced  two  or  three  miles  up  that  arroyo. 
Near  by  are  found  several  singular  mounds,  which  may  be 
burial-places ;  they  are  in  hollows  of  the  ground  not  far 
from  the  plateau.  We  were  assured  by  an  American  who 
had  resided  in  the  valley  several  years,  that  he  was  very 
sure  that  this  field  was  never  cultivated  or  irrigated  by  the 
Mission  or  present  Indians,  and  that  it  had  always  puzzled 
him,  and  he  concluded  it  must  have  been  done  by  the  ancient 
Indians,  of  whom  we  know  nothing.  He  had  heard  of  the 
bones  of  buffaloes  being  found  in  this  valley,  and  this  con 
firms  a  statement  made  in  Cabrilo's  voyage  of  1542,  who 
when  he  anchored  in  front  of  Saticoy  Valley  was  told  by 
the  Indians  that  people  lived  to  the  eastward  of  them  who 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  403 

had  cows  and  planted  maize.  The  discoverer  of  California 
found  the  Indians  of  this  vicinity  much  smarter  than  any 
where  along  the  coast.  Near  the  mouth  of  the  Saticoy 
River  are  two  immense  smooth  mounds,  called  by  the 
Indians  Tosalaloo  and  Mosolollo,  over  a  mile  long. 

There  is  another  trace  of  this  ancient  Indian  population  in 
a  curious  roadway  which  leads  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Coahuila  Valley  of  San  Gorgonio  Pass  across  the  desert 
country,  for  over  one  hundred  and  forty  miles,  in  nearly  a 
straight  easterly  line,  to  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Canon  of  the 
Colorado  River.  All  along  this  pathway,  which  is  worn 
deep  into  the  earth  and  soft  rocks,  the  ground  is  covered 
thickly  with  broken  unglazed  pottery,  supposed  to  be  the 
remains  of  water  vessels  used  by  the  ancient  Indians.  The 
present  Indians  know  nothing  of  those  who  made  this  high 
way,  which  ends  near  Noble's  ranclio  of  San  Gorgonio 
Pass,  or  Valley  of  the  Coahuilas. 

The  roadway  is  not  much  over  a  foot  broad,  and  what  is 
very  curious,  it  has  in  many  of  the  rocks  the  distinct  im 
pression  of  human  feet  and  of  animals.  It  is  worn  into  the 
soil  several  inches,  and  is  very  ancient,  and  still  perfectly 
preserved  in  all  its  parts,  as  our  informant  related  to  us. 
By-paths  lead  from  it  in  straight  lines  to  off-lying  water 
holes  and  springs,  which  are  all  surrounded  with  broken 
pottery. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  present  Indians  living  in  the 
little  valleys  of  the  eastern  slopes  of  the  San  Bernardino 
Mountains,  in  San  Diego  and  San  Bernardino  counties,  who 
number  several  thousands,  and  are  mostly  the  neophytes  of 
the  southern  missions,  and  generally  speaking  Spanish,  have 
a  tradition  from  their  grandfathers  that  the  Colorado  desert 
was  once  thickly  settled,  and  never  in  want  of  water,  and 
well  cultivated  in  many  parts.  These  Indians  still  cultivate 
the  ground  and  raise  grain,  cattle,  sheep,  horses,  &c.,  and 
even  make  woolen  blankets,  as  many  of  the  Colorado  tribes 
have  done  for  many  years  back,  some  of  which  were  of  a 
superior  quality,  and  which  we  have  ourselves  seen.  These 
blankets  are  similar  to  the  Navajo  Zuni  serapes,  and  can 
easily  hold  water. 


404  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

In  1853,  there  were  given  out  in  the  California  papers 
great  stories  of  the  discovery  of  an  immense  pyramid  and 
an  extensive  stone  bridge  being  found  in  the  eastern  or 
Colorado  parts  of  San  Diego,  Los  Angeles  or  San  Bernar 
dino  counties.  The  story  was  supposed  to  have  been  got 
up  by  some  gold-mining  hunters,  or  emigrants,  sons  of  the 
father  of  lies,  and  descendants  of  the  anathematized  Men- 
doza,  and  was  consequently  disbelieved  by  Californians, 
who  are  not  easily  deceived,  either  by  politicians  or  gam- 
businos.  Nor  ought  they  to  be,  if  ten  millions  of  public 
debts,  or  Fraser  River,  or  Gold  Lake  are  proofs  of  their 
sagacity.  If  they  had  not  have  doubted  no  one  would 
have  found  gold  at  Cariboo,  or  Salmon  River,  nor  will  ever 
any  one  find  the  gold-bullet  country  of  Aubrey,  nor  the 
great  pyramid  and  stone  bridge,  nor  the  capital  of  the 
ancient  kings  of  California,  which  is  still  supposed  to  exist 
in  some  secret  valley  inside  the  dry  mountains  between  the 
headwaters  of  the  Rio  Salado  and  Bill  Williams'  s  fork  of 
the  Colorado — a  very  terra  incognita — by  tradition  of 
Jesuits  and  Indians,  full  of  silver,  gold  and  mercury,  and 
waiting  to  immortalize  some  new  discoverer,  whose  paths 
diverge  from  the  field  of  Mars. 

The  mounds  of  Tosalaloo  and  Mosolollo,  referred  to  as 
existing  near  the  mouth  of  the  Saticoy  River,  are  strange 
looking  objects,  and  as  they  are  in  the  midst  of  a  fiat  plain 
of  great  extent,  running  down  to  the  ocean  some  six  miles 
off,  they  suggest  the  idea  which  some  of  the  old  Indians  are 
said  to  entertain  of  an  ancient  burial-place,  probably  of 
some  of  the  sea  kings  of  California,  whose  cities  are  now 
sunk  under  the  neighboring  channel  of  Santa  Barbara. 
The  high-road  runs  between  them,  and  they  are  some  two 
hundred  feet  high — smooth,  rounded,  and  entirely  bare  of 
trees.  But  they  may  be  only  one  of  the  caprices  of  Mother 
Nature.  The  smaller  mounds  near  the  ancient  irrigated 
fields  of  Cayatano  are  twenty  miles  up  the  valley,  which 
has  an  exceedingly  fertile  soil  in  the  bottoms ;  the  whole 
country  opens  to  the  ocean  in  an  immense  plain  twenty 
miles  along  the  sea-shore,  backed  by  high  ranges  of  moun 
tains.  These  smaller  mounds  are  only  five  or  six  feet  high, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  405 

by  about  ten  feet  long  ;  they  are  at  the  western  end  of  the 
acequias,  and  seem  to  have  been  water-worn  or  worked  out, 
by  running  water  all  around  the  mounds,  so  as  to  isolate 
each  one,  of  which  there  are  ten  or  twelve  in  number. 

ALEXANDER  S.  TAYLOR, 
in  San  Francisco  Bulletin,  1862. 


NEVADA. 

THE  mighty  tide  of  empire  dashed 
Upon  a  continent's  bold  strand, 

And,  rolling  back,  its  billows  washed 
And  fertilized  a  desert  land. 

They  came — the  founders  of  a  State, 
The  men  with  spirit  brave  and  free, 

Who  snatched  the  magic  wand  of  Fate 
And  shaped  their  own  high  destiny. 

They  smote  with  it  the  barren  rock, 
A  silver  tide  was  disentombed  ; 

The  mountains  sank  beneath  the  shock, 
And  arid  valleys  rose  and  bloomed. 

In  canon,  desert,  plain,  and  glade, 
On  mountains  towering  to  the  skies, 

The  broad  foundations  have  been  laid 
On  which  our  noble  State  shall  rise. 

Proud  may  we  be,  whom  God  selects 
As  trusty  instruments  of  fate, 

Proud  may  we  be,  the  architects 
Who  rear  the  pillars  of  a  State. 

The  humblest  laborers  who  toil 

Within  the  tunnels  damp  and  murk, 

Are  clothed  with  majesty  the  while 
They  aid  this  grand  creative  work. 


406  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Though  poor,  the  legacy  they  leave 
The  gift  of  wealth  or  rank  exceeds— 

This  proudest  boast  their  souls  shall  have 
A  heritage  of  noble  deeds. 

Then,  lend  a  stout  and  willing  hand, 
And  let  the  stately  structure  tower, 

With  its  proportions  fair  and  grand, 
As  reared  by  superhuman  power. 

So  fair,  so  grand,  that  we  with  pride 

Shall  list  while  generous  tongues  relate— 
i        Where  met  the  East  and  Western  tide 
Was  formed  at  last  a  perfect  State  ! 

JOSEPH  T.  GOODMAN, 
in  the  Virginia  (JVev.)  Territorial  Enterprise. 


SANTA    ANNA. SKETCH     OF     HIS     REMARKABLE     CAREER. 


NTONIO  LOPEZ  DE  SANTA  ANNA,  ex- 
President  and  Dictator  of  Mexico,  has  passed 
a  remarkable  career,  and  is  a  remarkable  char 
acter.  He  was  born  in  Jalapa,  February  21, 
1798.  He  first  came  into  public  notice  in 
1821,  in  the  Mexican  war  of  independence  ;  and  in  1822, 
haying  expelled  the  royalists  from  Vera  Cruz,  he  was  ap 
pointed  to  the  command  of  that  city.  In  November  of  that 
year,  he  was  deposed  by  Yturbide,  who  had  proclaimed 
himself  Emperor  ;  but  Santa  Anna  refused  to  submit  to  his 
authority,  raised  the  banner  of  the  republic  in  Vera  Cruz, 
and  in  1823  succeeded  in  compassing  Yturbide' s  downfall. 
In  the  changes  which  quickly  followed,  he  placed  himself 
at  the  head  of  the  federal  party,  but  was  defeated,  and  re 
tired  to  his  estate  at  Jalapa.  In  1828,  he  took  the  field 
against  the  government  of  Pedraza,  chosen  to  the  presidency 
by  an  electoral  majority  of  two,  declaring  the  election  of 
Guerrero  valid  ;  and  after  a  series  of  engagements  retired  to 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  407 

Oajaca.  The  command  of  the  forces  against  the  Spanish 
expedition  under  Barradas,  was  intrusted  to  him  ;  and  em 
barking  at  Yera  Cruz,  he  forced  Barradas  to  capitulate  at 
Tampico,  September  11,  1829.  Guerrero  made  him  Minister 
of  War  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army,  but,  continu 
ing  afterward  to  exercise  the  dictatorial  powers  with  which 
he  had  been  invested  to  repel  the  invasion,  Santa  Anna 
combined  with  Bustamente  to  overthrow  him,  and  the  latter 
was  made  President  by  the  army.  In  January,  1 832,  how 
ever,  Santa  Anna  headed  a  new  insurrection,  declaring  for 
Ms  former  opponent,  Pedraza,  whose  triumph  he  insured  by 
a  victory  over  the  government  troops,  in  October  of  that 
year.  Being  himself  chosen  President  in  March,  1833,  he 
had  to  confront  a  popular  insurrection  under  Arista  and 
Don  Gabriel  Duran,  but  speedily  subdued  it.  He  now  left 
the  party  of  the  federalists,  and  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  centralists,  who  wished  the  power  concentrated  in  the 
executive  government.  Though  a  favorite  with  the  army, 
which  desired  him  to  be  made  Dictator,  he  was  unpopular 
with  the  nation,  especially  as  a  rumor  was  spreading  that 
he  aimed  at  the  imperial  dignity.  A  new  revolt  broke  out 
in  four  provinces,  and  a  manifesto  was  issued  at  Texca 
against  his  government.  On  May  11,  1835,  he  utterly  de 
feated  the  army  of  the  insurgents,  on  the  plains  of  Guada- 
lupe,  near  Zacatecas.  killing  two  thousand,  and  taking  two 
thousand  seven  hundred  prisoners.  This  was  a  fatal  blow 
to  the  republican  party  in  Mexico,  and  Santa  Anna  was 
named  Dictator.  The  destruction  of  the  federal  constitution 
was  soon  consummated ;  the  State  Legislatures  were  abol 
ished,  their  places  being  supplied  by  a  departmental  coun 
cil,  and  the  governors  of  the  several  States  became  depend 
ent  upon  the  supreme  power.  Mexico  was  submissive,  but 
a  revolutionary  feeling  had  been  long  existing  in  Texas, 
which  now  broke  out  into  open  insurrection.  Early  in 
1836,  Santa  Anna  took  the  field  in  person.  By  the  middle 
of  February,  he  reached  the  Rio  Grande,  at  the  head  of  six 
thousand  troops,  stormed  the  Alamo  at  San  Antonio,  on 
March  6,  after  several  days'  siege,  and  massacred  its  de 
fenders,  but  with  great  loss  to  himself,  and  after  the  mas- 


408  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

sacre  at  Goliad,  done  under  his  express  orders,  marched 
toward  Gonzales.     At  San  Jacinto,  he  met  the  Texan  army, 
under  Houston,  by  whom  he  was  totally  routed,  April  21, 
and  the  day  following  taken  prisoner.     During  his  captivity 
he  made  a  treaty  with  the  Texans,  which  resulted  in  nothing, 
as  his  functions  were  suspended  by  the  Mexican  govern 
ment.     In  1837,  he  was  set  at  liberty,  and  returned  to  his 
native  country,  by  way  of  the  United  States.     On  reaching 
Yera  Cruz,  he  was  coldly  received.     At  the  Presidential 
election  of  that  year,  he  received  but  two  out  of  sixty-nine 
electoral  votes.     He  had  retired  to  his  estate,  twenty-seven 
miles  from  V era  Cruz,  when  (November  27)  the  castle  of  San 
Juan  de  Ulloa  was  bombarded  by  the  French.    He  hastened 
to  Yera  Cruz,  where  his  services  were  accepted  by  General 
Victoria,  and  took  command  after  the  fall  of  the  castle.    He 
repelled  an  assault  upon  that  city  by  the  French  (December 
5),  forcing  them  to  re-embark,  but  received  a  wound  in  the 
leg,  which  necessitated  its  amputation.     In  the  contentions 
between  the  centralists  and  federalists,  which  during  the 
following  years  distracted  Mexico,  he  was  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  former;  and  from  October  10,  1841,  to  June  4,  1844, 
he  was  virtual  Dictator,  under  the  title  of  Provisional  Pres 
ident,  Bravo  and  Canalizo  acting  as  his  substitutes  during 
two  intervals  of  absence  with  the  army.     He  was  again  Con 
stitutional  President,  under  the  instrument  of  June  12, 1843, 
from  June  4  to  September  20,  1844,  when  he  was  deposed 
by  a  new  revolution,  taken  prisoner  near  Tlacolula,  on  Jan 
uary  15,  1845,  banished  for  ten  years,  and  took  up  his  resi 
dence  in  Cuba.      The  two  succeeding  Presidents,  Herrera 
and  Paredes,  found  themselves  unable  to  grapple  with  the 
difficulties  under  which  the  country  was  laboring,  aggra 
vated  as  they  were  by  the  war  just  breaking  out  with  the 
United  States.     Santa  Anna  was  recalled,  and  by  the  con 
nivance  of  the  American  Government,  which,  for  reasons 
that  have  never  been  made  known,  supposed  him  favorable 
to  peace  and  recognizing  the  independence  of  Texas,  he  was 
permitted  to  pass  through  the  fleet  and  reach  Mexico  in 
safety.     There,  contrary  to  the  opinion  entertained  in  the 
United  States,  he  declared  vigorously  for  the  war,  and  was 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  409 

appointed  generalissimo  by  the  provisional  government 
under  Salas,  and  in  December  was  made  Provisional  Presi 
dent.  Immediately  after,  at  tlie  head  of  twenty  thousand 
men,  the  flower  of  the  Mexican  army,  he  advanced  north 
ward,  and  on  February  22,  1847,  attacked  the  American 
troops  at  Buena  Vista,  five  thousand  strong,  under  General 
Taylor.  He  was  effectually  repulsed,  but  nevertheless  main 
tained  his  reputation  and  popularity,  and  collected  a  new 
army  for  the  defense  of  the  eastern  frontier.  In  the  mean 
time  Anaya  was  elected  President,  and  Santa  Anna,  taking 
command  of  his  troops,  intrenched  himself  at  Cerro  Gordo, 
where,  on  April  18,  he  was  attacked  and  defeated  by  the 
Americans  under  Scott.  Yet  in  spite  of  these  disasters,  he 
was  enabled  to  collect  three  thousand  men  from  the  frag 
ments  of  his  broken  army,  and,  retreating  toward  the  na 
tional  capital,  halted  at  Ayutla.  There  he  was  informed  of 
his  appointment  to  the  Presidency,  as  it  was  felt  by  the 
Mexicans,  amid  all  their  disheartening  reverses,  that  he  was 
the  only  man  who  could  make  head  against  the  Americans 
with  any  prospect  of  success.  But  finding  subsequently 
that  the  election  for  President  which  the  States  had  held  on 
May  15,  was  unfavorable  to  his  pretensions,  he  prevailed  on 
Congress  to  postpone  the  counting  of  votes  until  Janu 
ary,  1818,  and  in  the  mean  time  banished  or  imprisoned  all 
those  opposing  his  schemes,  and  established  a  severe  cen 
sorship  of  the  press.  During  the  course  of  the  year  he  car 
ried  on  secret  negotiations  with  Scott,  and  Trist,  the  Ameri 
can  commissioner,  with  questionable  sincerity,  and  certainly 
with  no  result.  He  organized  an  army  of  thirty  thousand 
men  for  the  defense  of  the  capital.  The  battles  of  Contreras 
and  Churubusco  followed  (August  19  and  20,  1847),  and  the 
next  day  an  armistice,  proposed  by  General  Scott,  was  ac 
cepted  by  him,  which  suspended  hostilities  till  September  8. 
The  battle  of  Molinos  del  Rey  was  fought  September  9  ;  and 
on  September  16,  1847,  the  City  of  Mexico  was  captured, 
having  previously  been  evacuated  by  the  officers  of  the 
government.  Santa  Anna  now  resigned  the  executive  chair 
to  Peua  y  Pena,  who  had  been  constitutionally  elected  his 
successor,  and,  though  he  despaired  of  successfully  resisting 


410  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  party  of  peace  in  Mexico,  lie  made  a  last  effort  to  re 
trieve  his  reputation  by  the  siege  of  Puebla ;  but  he  was 
attacked  by  General  Lane  at  Huamantla,  and  forced  to  re 
tire  from  the  place,  which  was  now  relieved.  In  the  middle 
of  January,  1848,  an  attempt  was  made  to  surprise  him  at 
Tehuacan,  where  he  was  lurking,  but  failed  ;  and  about 
February  1,  Santa  Anna  informed  the  Minister  of  War,  and 
the  American  Commander-in- Chief,  that  he  desired  to  leave 
Mexico,  and  "seek  an  asylum  on  a  foreign  soil,  where  he 
might  pass  his  last  days  in  that  tranquillity  which  he  could 
never  find  in  the  land  of  his  birth. ' '  The  desired  permission 
was  granted,  and  on  April  5,  1848,  he  took  passage  from  La 
Antigua  to  Jamaica.  In  that  island  he  remained  several 
years  ;  but  the  anarchical  condition  of  Mexico  under  the 
Presidencies  of  Herrera  and  Arista  turned  men' s  eyes  once 
more  upon  him,  and  returning  to  Mexico  in  1853,  he  was 
received  with  great  enthusiasm.  He  was  appointed  Presi 
dent  for  one  year,  after  which  time  he  was  to  call  a  constit 
uent  Congress  ;  but  he  fomented  a  new  revolution  by  which 
he  was  declared  President  for  life,  with  power  to  appoint 
his  successor,  and  the  title  of  Most  Serene  Highness.  He 
began  to  rule  with  despotic  authority,  and  the  revolution  of 
Ayutla  followed,  led  by  General  Alvarez.  After  a  struggle 
of  two  years,  Santa  Anna,  finding  himself  without  resources, 
since  he  had  spent  the  ten  millions  of  the  Gadsden  treaty, 
signed  his  unconditional  abdication,  and  sailed  (August  16, 
1855)  from  Vera  Cruz  for  Havana.  He  afterward  went  to 
Turbaco,  Venezuela,  for  two  years,  and  has  since  resided  in 
the  island  of  St.  Thomas.  On  the  advent  of  Maximilian  in 
Mexico,  he  embraced  the  cause  of  the  usurper,  believing,  as 
he  declared,  that  Maximilian  could  restore  peace  to  the 
country.  He  was  disappointed,  however,  in  his  hopes,  and 
perhaps  his  expectations  ;  for  he  soon  abandoned  Mexico 
and  the  cause,  and  returned  to  St.  Thomas.  Here  he  has 
since  resided.— if.  Y.  Herald,  May  14,  1866. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  411 


"DEATH  VALLEY." 

IHIS  valley  is  some  fifty  miles  long  by  thirty  in 
breadth,  and,  save  at  two  points,  it  is  wholly 
encircled  by  mountains,  up  whose  steep  sides 
it  is  impossible  for  any  but  expert  climbers  to 
ascend.  It  is  devoid  of  vegetation  and  the 
shadows  of  bird  or  wild  beast  never  darkened 
its  white  glaring  sand.  In  the  early  days,  trains  of  emi 
grants  bound  for  California  passed,  under  the  direction  of 
guides,  to  the  south  of  Death  Valley,  by  what  is  known  as 
the  "old  Mormon  road."  In  the  year  1850,  a  large  train, 
with  some  three  hundred  emigrants,  mostly  from  Illinois 
and  Missouri,  came  from  Salt  Lake,  guided  by  a  Mormon. 
When  near  Death  Valley,  a  dissent  broke  out  in  a  part  of 
the  train,  and  twenty-one  families  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  Mormon  knew  nothing  about  the  country ;  so  they 
appointed  one  of  their  number  a  leader,  and  broke  off  from 
the  main  party.  This  leader  determined  to  turn  due  west ; 
so  with  the  people  and  wagons  and  flocks  he  traveled  for 
three  days,  and  then  descended  into  the  broad  valley, 
whose  treacherous  mirage  promised  water.  They  reached 
the  center,  but  only  the  white  glaring  sand,  bound  by  the 
scorched  peaks,  met  their  gaze  on  every  hand.  Around 
the  valley  they  wandered,  and  one  by  one  the  men  died  and 
the  panting  flocks  stretched  themselves  in  death  under  the 
hot  sun.  Then  the  children,  crying  for  water,  died  at  their 
mothers'  breasts,  and  with  swollen  tongues  and  burning 
vitals,  the  mothers  followed.  Wagon  after  wagon  was  aban 
doned,  and  strong  men  tottered  and  raved  and  died.  After 
a  week's  wandering,  a  dozen  survivors  found  some  water  in 
the  hollow  of  a  rock  in  the  mountains.  It  lasted  but  a 
short  time,  then  all  perished  but  two,  who,  through  some 
miraculous  means,  got  out  of  the  valley  and  followed  the 
trail  of  their  former  companions.  Eighty-seven  persons, 
with  hundreds  of  animals,  perished  in  this  fearful  place, 
and  since  then  the  name  of  Death  Valley  has  been  applied 
to  it.  Mr.  Spears  says  that  when  he  visited  it  last  winter, 


412  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

after  the  lapse  of  eighteen  years,  he  found  the  wagons  still 
complete,  the  iron  works  and  the  tires  bright,  and  the 
shriveled  skeletons  lying  in  many  places  side  by  side.— 
&  F.  Golden  City,  June  28,  1868. 


GEOLOGY    OF    THE    GLOBE. 

treating  of  the  distribution  of  the  different  rocks 
covering  the  face  of  the  globe,  I  shall  divide 
the  world  into  six  portions.  In  the  North  there 
are  North  America,  Europe,  and  Asia  ;  and  in 
the  South,  South  America,  Africa,  and  Aus 
tralasia. 

I.  North  America.— The  first  land  which  appeared  in 
North  America  was  Russian  America,  at  Behring's  Straits, 
with  a  narrow  strip  running  south  to  the  Straits  of  Panama, 
the  whole  being  Silurian  rock,  which  formed  the  west 
coast.  On  the  east  coast  there  is  Labrador,  Canada,  and 
Greenland,  and  a  narrow  strip  running  south  to  Virginia, 
which  is  likewise  composed  of  silurian  rock.  These  begin 
nings  of  North  America  form  two  long  islands.  The  waters 
recede— caused  by  so  large  a  discharge  of  solid  matter  from 
the  ocean  (the  two  islands  just  named)— when  the  Devonian 
and  carboniferous  rocks  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  and  the 
United  States  make  their  appearance,  which  forms  another 
island,  midway  between  the  two  previously  named.  The 
waters  again  recede,  and  the  oolite  and  chalk  of  the  Missis 
sippi  valley  are  produced.  This  addition  converts  the  three 
islands  into  two,  which  are  now  only  separated  by  a  nar 
row  sea.  The  water  once  more  subsides,  when  the  London 
clay  formation  comes  to  light,  which  unites  the  two  islands 
and  completes  the  formation  of  the  North  American  conti 
nent.  A  considerable  extent  of  London  clay  is  at  the  same 
time  added  to  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  as  far  up  as  Red  River,  is,  however,  allu 
vial,  formed  by  the  soil  carried  down  by  the  Mississippi 
and  Missouri.  The  elevation  of  the  older  rocks  being 
always  greater  than  those  which  follow  them,  it  is  very 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  413 

evident  that  the  formation  of  dry  land  and  the  appearance 
of  new  rocks  has  been  caused,  not  by  the  upheaving  of  the 
land,  but  by  the  subsidence  of  the  waters.  The  solidifica 
tion  of  the  water  by  the  creation  of  rocks,  and  the  conse 
quent  reduction  of  the  temperature,  could  not  fail  to  reduce 
the  water  level.  In  modern  times  there  are  almost  no 
traces  of  this  action  going  on,  but  neither  are  there  any  visi 
ble  traces  of  new  rocks  being  formed,  and  without  the  one 
we  can  not  have  the  other. 

II.  Europe. — Europe  began  with  a  large  island  in  the 
North,  comprising  Norway,  Sweden,  Lapland,  and  Finland, 
with  a  number  of  small  islands  dotted  over  the  area  now 
occupied  by  the  various  countries  of  Europe.     The  water 
having  receded,  the  Devonian  and  carboniferous  rocks  are 
added.     The  water  again  subsides,  and  the  oolite  and  chalk 
make    their    appearance.       The    sea    having    been    again 
reduced,  the  London  clay  makes  its  appearance,  when  all 
Europe,  including  Great  Britain,  is  united  and  formed  into 
one   continent.     The   deluge,   which   caused   the  northern 
drift,   now  makes  its  appearance,  and   detaches   England 
from  the  continent. 

III.  Asia. — The  northern  and  western  coasts  of  Asia  being 
silurian,  that  would  form  one  vast  island,  detached  from 
Europe,  in  the  form  of  a  crescent,  beginning  with  Siberia 
and  Russian  America,  and  ending  with  Malacca  and  Hin- 
dostan.     The  sea  recedes,  and  large  patches  of  Devonian 
and  carboniferous  rocks  are  added.    The  water  having  again 
fallen,  the  oolite  and  chalk  appear  in  China,  Thibet,  and 
Arabia.     The  sea  is  again  reduced,  and  a  vast  field  of  Lon 
don  clay  is  laid  dry,  which  connects  Europe  with  Asia. 
The  deposit  forms  Western  Siberia  and  the  deserts  of  Central 
Asia  and  Arabia.     The  northern  part  of  Siberia  is  formed 
of  drift  or  alluvial,  which  has  either  been  caused  by  the 
deluge  or  carried  down  by  the  great  rivers  running  north, 
or  partly  from  both  causes.     The  deluge  appears  to  have  cut 
through  Behring's   Straits,    and   separated  the   old  world 
from  the  new.     The  rocks  on  both  sides  of  Behring'  s  Straits 
being  low,  and  of  the  same  description,  there  is  every  indi 
cation  that  this  was  so  ;  and  when  we  find  the  Mongolian 


414  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

race  inhabiting  the  north  on  both  continents  to  this  day, 
this  theory  is  pretty  well  established. 

The  Arctic  Ocean  was  probably  at  one  time  a  lake,  sur 
rounded  on  all  sides  by  land.  This  lake  in  the  early  ages 
would  be  entirely  free  from  frost,  snow,  or  ice,  for  then  the 
temperature  was  much  higher  than  it  is  now,  of  which  the 
fossils  of  tropical  animals  found  in  Lapland  are  proof. 
Suppose  that  temperature  was  156°  at  the  tropics  at  the 
period  of  the  London  clay,  and  there  was  a  general  fall  of 
temperature  of  one-half,  that  would  leave  a  temperature  of 
78°  for  Lapland  and  Greenland.  In  this  state  of  the  world, 
this  great  Arctic  sea  or  lake  overflows,  or  is  visited  by  a 
tornado  or  convulsion  of  nature.  The  waters  burst  through 
the  barriers  of  land  that  confine  them  at  Bhering'  s  Straits, 
Baffin' s  Bay,  and  Spitzbergen,  which  flood  the  whole  world, 
and  the  drifting  matter  found  in  all  parts  of  the  globe  testi 
fies  to  the  extent  and  fatal  results  of  this  fearful  catastrophe. 

IV.  South  America. — This  continent  began  with  three 
great  islands,    the    first  forming  the  western  coast  from 
Panama  to  Cape  Horn,  the  second  forming  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  Brazils,  and  the  third  forming  the  northern  coast — all 
being  composed  of  silurian  rocks.     The  sea  having  receded, 
patches  of  Devonian  and  carboniferous  rocks  are  added  to 
the   dry  land.      The  water  again   subsides,  when  a  vast 
extent  of  London   clay  is  left  dry,    which   connects   the 
islands,   and  completes   the  formation  of  South  America. 
The  alluvial  formation  is  here  very  extensive,  formed  by 
the  soil  washed  down  by  the  Amazon  and  the  La  Plata. 

V.  Africa. — This  vast  continent  began  with  one  great 
island,  forming  the  southern  half  of  Africa  and  the  western 
shores  of  the  Red  Sea.     Patches  of  carboniferous  rocks  are 
next  added.     The  sea  having  receded,  a  strip  of  oolite  and 
chalk  appears  along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  which 
forms  a  second  island.     The  waters  again  subside,  and  a 
vast  deposit  of  London  clay,  forming  the  great  desert  of 
Sahara,  completes  the  formation  of  the  African  continent. 

VI.  Australasia. — The  great  island  of  Australia  began 
with   an   island  in  the   form   of  a  crescent,   composed  of 
silurian  rocks.     At  the   same   time,   the  islands   of  New 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  415 

Guinea,  Borneo,  Tasmania,  and  JSTew  Zealand  were  formed, 
which  are  likewise  Silurian.  The  waters  having  receded, 
strips  of  carboniferous  rocks  appear  on  the  eastern  coast  of 
Australia,  and  in  most  of  the  other  islands.  The  coasts  are 
next  skirted  with  oolite  and  chalk,  left  bare  by  the  receding 
of  the  waters.  The  ocean  having  again  subsided,  the  center 
of  Australia,  which  is  London  clay,  becomes  dry  land,  when 
the  island  continent,  as  it  now  exists,  is  completed. 

There  is  a  great  want  of  land  in  the  south  compared  with 
the  north.  Land  appeared  first  in  quantity  in  the  north, 
which  impeded  the  natural  flow  of  the  ocean  in  that  region. 
It  was  different  with  the  south,  where  there  was  compara 
tively  little  land,  and  where  the  currents  pursued  their 
course  with  little  interruption.  The  peculiar  shape  of  the 
land  in  the  south,  with  pointed  ends  turning  southward,  as 
in  the  case  of  South  America,  Africa,  Arabia,  Hindostan, 
and  Malacca,  indicate  a  flow  of  water  to  the  north,  which 
had  washed  away  the  land  and  left  the  continents  the  shape 
they  now  are.  While  the  northern  drift  sent  the  water  from 
the  north  to  the  south  there  would  of  necessity  be  a  counter 
current  from  the  south  to  the  north,  and  while  there  are  in 
dications  of  the  one  current  in  the  north,  there  are  equally 
strong  indications  of  the  other  current  in  the  south,  as  has 
been  already  explained.  When  additions  of  new  land  are 
made,  new  deposits  of  rocks  now  unknown  will  cover  the 
land.  We  have  been  gauging  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  if  we  could  bore  down  a  few  hundred  fathoms  in  the 
bottom  of  the  sea  we  should  know  what  these  new  rocks 
are.  The  following  table  gives  the  probable  quantities  of 
the  different  rocks  covering  the  six  portions  into  which  I 
have  divided  the  globe.  The  figures  represent  millions  of 
square  miles  : — 


T 

£§ 

o 

"•g 

3 

53 

ii 

E-5 

£§ 

I! 

5l 

North  America  

3 

..2        .. 

i     .  . 

i 

Europe  

l\ 

!  ' 

i 

Asia  

34 

., 

41 

4 

South  America  

91 
—  2 

i 

1 

«] 
2      .. 

1 

Africa.  .  . 

6 

i 

1 

5 

1 

Australasia  

1} 

•2 

i 

1      .. 

2 

c,  -3 

I        I 

7 
|  4 


Total 17^   .        71      ..      3        ..    14      ..      6^      ..      2        ..50^ 


416  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

It  will  be  observed  from  the  above  estimate  that  there  are 
more  silurian  rocks  on  the  face  of  the  earth  than  other— 
viz.,  17,500,000  square  miles;  London  clay  coming  next, 
which  extends  to  14,000,000  miles.  Of  Devonian  and  car 
boniferous  rocks  there  are  7,500,000  ;  of  trap  and  granite, 
2,000,000;  and  of  drift  and  alluvial,  6,250,000.  The  vast 
extent  of  the  London  clay  points  to  this  period,  or  rather 
the  one  immediately  preceding  it,  as  the  age  of  the  earth 
when  the  absorption  of  the  waters,  and  the  consequent 
reduction  of  the  temperature,  went  on  most  rapidly,  for  we 
may  always  measure  the  fall  of  the  water  level  by  the  extent 
of  the  land  uncovered. 

The  generally  received  theory  of  the  drift  is  that  the 
Arctic  Sea  was  frozen  at  the  time  of  the  London  clay.  The 
ice  was  broken  up  by  some  convulsions  of  nature,  which 
drifted  enormous  icebergs  over  the  whole  world,  carrying 
on  their  backs  huge  masses  of  soil  and  rock.  That  such  an 
improbable  theory  should  have  gained  ground  among  scien 
tific  men  only  shows  the  want  of  some  better  theory  to 
account  for  the  facts  of  the  case.  There  is  no  want  of  evi 
dence  to  show  that  the  Arctic  Sea  could  not  have  been 
frozen  over  at  the  time  of  the  drift ;  and  it  is  equally  im 
possible  to  conceive  how  the  icebergs  could  have  been 
loaded  with  soil  and  rock,  as  they  are  said  to  have  been. 

The  theory  of  the  drift  which  I  have  ventured  to  propose, 
is,  in  my  opinion,  a  very  probable  one.  One-half  of  Siberia 
consists  of  drift  and  alluvial,  not  confined  merely  to  the 
estuaries  of  the  rivers,  but  stretching  along  the  coast  from 
the  White  Sea  to  Kamschatka,  a  distance  of  many  thousand 
miles.  This  enormous  mass  of  drifted  matter  indicates  a 
vast  accumulation,  caused  by  the  influx  of  the  rivers  running 
north  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  pent-up  waters  of  the 
Arctic  Sea  on  the  other.  Should  a  new  exploring  expedi 
tion  be  sent  to  the  North  Pole,  it  would  be  well  to  take  this 
new  theory  into  consideration,  and  to  furnish  any  facts  that 
may  be  gathered  tending  to  elucidate  the  matter. 

Such  is  a  general  estimate  of  the  structure  of  the  earth, 
and  how  the  dry  land  emerged  from  the  bosom  of  the 
waters.— Unionmlle,  Nevada,  Huinboldt  Register. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


417 


JESUITS     IX     SPANISH     AMERICA. THEIR     EXPULSION     FROM     THE 

CALIFOENIAS,    1767. 


IT  is  a  century  ago.  Who  can  realize  it?  Could 
any  California!!  embody  the  thought  while  wit 
nessing,  at  Santa  Clara,  in  June,  1867,  tli3 
examination  of  the  students  of  the  great  col 
lege  of  that  religious  fraternity,  which  many 
Roman  Catholics  affirm  is  the  "right  hand  of  the  Church," 
that  their  predecessors  were  ignominiously  expelled  one 
hundred  years  ago  from  the  Californias,  and  forbid  ever  to 
set  foot  again  in  the  American  dominions  of  the  King  of 
Spain. 

THE    RISE    AND    EXTENSION    OF    THE    JESUIT    COMMONWEALTH. 

Thus  came  about  this  mighty  event  in  the  religious  and 
political  peripheries  of  the  family  of  man.  The  Jesuits, 
since  the  year  1550,  had  explored  every  portion  of  the  New 
World  (save  the  ancient  Alta  California),  from  the  frontiers 
of  Auracania  to  the  frozen  wilds  of  Labrador — from  the 
lines  of  the  Atlantic  to  the  boundless  horizons  of  the  South 
Seas.  In  the  pampas  of  La  Plata,  among  the  sclvas  of 
Paragua}^  in  the  interminable  forests  of  Brazil,  among  the 
beautiful  dells  and  glades  and  vcgas  of  Chili,  of  Peru,  of 
Quito,  of  New  Granada,  of  Venezuela,  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  Andes,  within  the  most  lovely  valleys  and  temperate 
lands  of  Central  America  and  Mexico ;  throughout  the 
islands  of  the  Carribean  Antilles  ;  from  the  gates  of  the 
Mississippi  to  the  great  lakes  of  New  France,  where  the 
mighty  St.  Lawrence  fountains  its  floods,  to  the  Gulf  of 
Newfoundland,  lived  these  men  among  the  children  of  the 
Aztecs  and  the  Tzendals  and  the  Incas,  brooding  over  the 
fall  of  their  ancient  empires  and  traditions ;  having  gone 
forth  from  the  haunts  of  European  civilizations,  with  an 
irrevocable  vow  to  conquer  the  races  of  men  to  the  dominion 
of  Christ — to  fix  their  faith  to  the  Church  of  Rome — to  make 
all  know  that  St.  Peter  was  keeper  of  the  doors  of  heaven ; 

27 


418  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

on  this  rock  do  "  I  build  my  Church,  nor  shall  the  gates 
of  hell  prevail."  In  every  country  of  Europe  :  in  Egypt, 
in  Syria,  in  Abyssinia,  in  Persia,  in  Chaldea,  in  Armenia ; 
in  the  boundless  steppes  of  Tartary  and  the  rugged  fronts 
of  the  Caucasus  ;  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  in  the  humid, 
heated  plains  of  Bengal ;  among  the  nations  of  the  Carnatic, 
the  Malabar,  and  the  Coromandel ;  the  super- refined  Gentiles 
of  the  Oriental  Illuminati,  glorying  in  the  fabrications  of 
magic  and  enchantery,  and  dwelling  among  the  splendid 
ruins  of  the  old  sultans  and  rajahs,  in  the  imperium  of  the 
Great  Mogul ;  all  through  populous,  crowding,  million- 
peopled  China,  to  the  very  throne  of  the  Mantchoos  at 
Pekin,  they  bore  the  Banner  of  the  Cross  ! 

THEY    FOUND    COLLEGES,    LIBRARIES,    AXD    CONVENTS. 

In  most  of  the  powerful  States  and  Kingdoms  of  Conti 
nental  Europe  they  founded  Colleges,  which  became  the 
mother  seats  of  letters  and  science,  and  to  this  day  these 
institutions,  secularized  to  the  Governments  after  their  ex 
pulsion  before  1767,  are  still  the  great  centers  of  learning 
and  of  immense  collections  of  books  and  instruments  of 
philosophic  demonstration.  Many  of  the  sons  of  kings  and 
princes,  and  thousands  of  the  first  families  of  Europe,  with 
multitudes  of  those  of  the  less  wealthy  and  of  the  middle 
classes,  joined  the  Order  and  went  forth  year  after  year 
into  every  land,  country,  and  people  under  the  sun,  as 
teachers  or  missionaries  or  lay  brethren,  to  capture  human 
souls  ;  to  build  up  the  houses,  the  churches,  the  parishes, 
the  convents,  or  the  colleges  of  the  company  ;  to  lay  down 
their  lives  as  martyrs  or  as  civilizers  of  pagan  nations  or  of 
savage  tribes,  or  instructors  of  Christian  youth,  or  pro 
fessors  in  learned  universities,  or  priests  to  serve  the  hum 
blest  parish  church  in  Christendom,  or  as  confessors  to 
kings,  queens,  princes,  nobles,  or  statesmen.  They  built 
the  most  splendid  churches  in  Europe  and  filled  them  with 
the  choicest  morceaux  of  art ;  and  innumerable  were  the 
"  monsters  of  erudition  "  which  the  sons  of  Ignatius  gave 
to  the  learned  world  in  theology,  philosophy,  languages, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  419 

science,    belles  lettres,    history,    archaeology,    travels,   and 
geography. 

GREAT    DICTIONARY    MAKERS. 

Throughout  all  Spanish  and  French  America  they  estab 
lished  hundreds  of  missions  among  the  Indian  tribes,  and  in 
Mexico,  New  Granada,  Quito,  and  Peru  were  the  founders 
of  universities,  colleges,  and  libraries,  and  they  reduced  to 
grammatical  rules  not  less  than  fifty  different  idioms  of  the 
aboriginal  tribes  of  the  Americas,  some  of  which  were  the 
results  of  life-labor,  and  are  monuments  of  acute  research, 
industry,  and  learned  zeal,  and  are  in  constant  use  to  this 
day  in  letters  and  common  life. 

THE    HISTORIANS    OF    THE    NATIONS. 

The  histories  and  explorations  of  the  barbarous  or  con 
quered  countries  of  the  New  World,  which  the  Jesuits 
compiled,  attest  the  industry,  the  zeal,  and  the  intelligence 
of  the  fraternity ;  and  it  may  be  truly  said,  if  these  works 
had  perished,  there  would  be  no  true  foundation  for  the 
history  of  one  half  of  America.  The  immense  numbers  of 
philological  and  historical  volumes  on  China,  India,  Japan, 
Western  Asia,  and  Eastern  Europe  compiled  by  the  mem 
bers  of  this  religious  corporation  is  one  of  the  most  wonder 
ful  features  of  modern  letters,  and  has  drawn  forth  the 
plaudits  of  the  most  bitter  of  their  enemies  and  the  deepest 
regrets  from  high-minded  philosophers  that  this  great  body 
of  literary  monks  and  scribes  should  have  been  plundered 
by  princes  and  people  to  such  poverty  and  destruction.  To 
give  a  better  idea  of  what  the  Jesuits  have  done  in  the  re 
public  of  letters,  ten  years  ago  a  French  author  made  a 
bibliographical  catalogue  of  their  writings,  which  filled 
four  or  five  large  octavos.  A  highly  interesting  account  of 
their  missionary  labors  in  English  America  before  1750  was 
written  by  no  less  a  personage  than  the  excellent  bishop  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  California,  to  whom  the 
Jesuits  are  indebted  for  much  honorable  and  Christian 
courtesy. 


420  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


THEIR    MISSIONS    AXD    COLLEGES    IX    THE    AMERICAS. 

In  Mexico,  Guatemala,  Venezuela,  Ecuador,  Peru,  Bo 
livia,  and  Chili,  and  particularly  Paraguay,  they  established 
an  immense  number  of  missions  among  the  Indian  tribes, 
and,  after  long  years  of  laborious  perseverance,  brought 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  them  into  the  habits  of  orderly, 
civilized  life,  and  greatly  extended  and  confirmed  the  power 
of  Spain,  and  even  made  Christian  republics  in  Paraguay 
and  California.  In  all  the  chief  towns  of  these  remote 
countries  they  erected  elegantly  constructed  and  beautiful 
churches,  built  many  of  them  in  the  highest  style  of  art, 
which,  to  this  day,  call  forth  the  admiration  of  the  traveler. 
In  Bogota,  in  Mexico,  Pueblo,  Guadalajara,  Guatemala. 
Quito,  Lima,  Cuzco,  La  Paz  of  Bolivia,  Cordova,  and 
Buenos  Ayres  of  La  Plata,  and  in  Santiago  they  erected 
colleges  which  speedily  attained  the  highest  status  in  Span 
ish  America,  from  the  numbers  of  eminent  scholars  with 
which  they  filled  the  chairs  of  the  professorships,  combined 
with  large  libraries  of  books,  procured  from  all  parts  of 
America  and  Europe,  and  attracting  crowds  of  the  youth  of 
the  first  families  of  the  wealthy  Creoles  of  the  New  World. 
Thus  it  was  that  the  marvelous  green  bay-tree  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus  struck  its  roots  deep  into  the  earth  and  grew  to  a 
lofty  height,  and  spread  far  and  wide  its  umbrageous  arms, 
so  that  all  races  of  men  rested  under  its  shadow,  and  won 
dered  at  the  power,  diligence,  and  ubiquity  of  the  sons  of 
Loyola.  In  the  year  1760,  the  Jesuits  are,  by  some  writers, 
stated  to  have  numbered,  in  Spanish  America,  7,000  persons, 
lay  and  sacerdotal,  over  3,000  of  whom  were  in  New  Spain 
and  Guatemala,  many  of  them  natives  of  the  New  World, 
for  an  inexorable  rule  of  democratic  equality  prevailed  from 
Rome  to  California,  and  every  man,  from  the  richest  to  the 
poorest,  went  through  one  mill  and  found  his  exact  level, 
according  to  natural  merit.  Their  own  writers  affirm,  as 
well  as  their  enemies,  that  the  sons  of  princes  or  nobles 
served  as  gardeners  or  cooks,  or  those  of  farmers  and 
peasants  sat  in  the  chairs  of  professors  or  the  heads  of 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  421 

houses.  The  order  accumulated  in  the  Spanish  colonies  an 
immense  amount  of  wealth,  but  it  was  all  concentrated  in 
churches,  convents,  libraries,  colleges,  and  mission  build 
ings,  with  landed  properties  as  haciendas  and  gardens,  which 
last  were  managed  by  lay  brethren,  to  give  rentals  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  priests,  professors,  and  missionaries,  and 
provision  for  the  poor. 

IMMENSE    INFLUENCE    IX    SPANISH    AMERICA. 

The  society  thus  attained  an  immense  popularity  among 
the  middling  and  humbler  classes  of  people,  and  the  Black 
Coats  were  the  most  popular  of  men  among  the  down-trod 
den  Indian  races.  They  went  unharmed  among  the  most 
savage  and  barbarous  tribes,  where  no  other  Spaniard 
dared  to  set  his  foot.  The  priests  and  professors  in  Spanish 
America  were  the  most  esteemed  and  welcome  of  all  the 
Catholic  clergy,  among  the  rich  and  the  poor;  and  the 
society,  as  well  as  other  Spanish  writers,  assert  that  their 
lives  were  eminently  virtuous,  pure,  and  honorable,  and 
according  to  the  highest  standard  laid  down  by  the  Fathers 
of  the  Latin  Church.  After  awhile,  from  the  high-bred 
courtesy,  patience,  and  persistent  attention  of  the  teachers 
to  the  development  of  the  characteristic  abilities  of  their 
pupils,  no  young  man's  education  in  the  American  colonies 
was  considered  complete  until  he  had  passed  through  their 
schools,  and  great  numbers  of  their  Creole  students  joined 
the  Order,  and  became  famous  scholars  in  belles-lettres, 
theology,  and  history. 

THE    WAR    ON    THE    JESUITS. THEIR    RESIGNATION. 

All  this  wonderful  prosperity,  power,  and  influence  could 
not  exist  without  exciting  enmity,  jealousy,  suspicion,  and, 
finally,  the  fiercest  opposition  and  cunningest  combinations 
of  intrigue.  Satan,  the  enemy  of  man,  ever  plotting  the 
abasement  and  destruction  of  the  Church,  says  the  old  Jesuit 
chronicler  of  California,  could  not  see  so  many  souls  re 
deemed  from  perdition  without  revolting  against  these 
sacred  invasions  of  his  unholy  diminion.  "  You  are  very 


422  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

astute,  you  gentle  shepherds  of  the  simple  flocks,"  said  the 
philosophers  and  the  Voltarian  Spaniards.  "You  like  to 
sit  in  soft  places,  arid  know  how  to  feather  your  nests  ;  you 
invade  the  courts  of  kings  and  juggle  for  the  consciences  of 
the  ignorant ;  you  are  too  good  for  this  world,  and  such  are 
not  to  be  trusted  by  those  who  know  two  from  four.  Your 
sleek  black  coats  and  catecornered  skull-caps  cover  deep 
heads  and  black  hearts.  We'll  watch  you  and  scotch  you." 
Then  commenced  an  uproar,  and  a  determined  fight  in 
every  family  and  every  circle  in  the  Catholic  world  from 
the  highest  to  the  lowest ;  and,  after  a  long  and  bitter 
struggle,  they  became  the  "bottom  dog,"  and  the  enemies 
of  the  Jesuits  triumphed. 

The  Jesuits  were  driven  from  city  to  city  ;  they  were 
abhorred  outcasts  in  Portugal,  in  Prance,  in  Naples,  in 
Germany,  and,  finally,  in  the  domains  of  Spain,  in  all  of 
which  they  had  been  the  honored  of  the  honored,  their  last 
and  only  refuge  being  the  States  of  the  Papal  See.  "  God, 
in  his  mysterious  wisdom,  hath  allowed  the  enemy  of  man 
to  prevail  for  a  season,"  saj^s  the  ancient  Jesuit  author; 
"our  calumniators,  and  even  those  of  the  household  of 
faith,  hath  overcome  us  in  the  conflict.  We  are  chastised 
for  our  innumerable  sins,  and  bow  to  the  hand  that  smites. 
We  can  now  realize  the  words  of  our  Founder,  that  good 
fortune  is  never  to  be  trusted,  and  that  we  have  most  to  fear 
when  things  go  according  to  our  own  desires.  Christ  is  the 
Master  of  souls,  and  we  are  his  ministers,  and  but  sqjourn- 
ers  on  earth  to  that  country  where  God  reigns  all  in  all. 
A.  M.  D.  G." 

ORDER  FOR  THEIR  EXPULSION    FROM  SPANISH  AMERICA. THEY  LEAVE 

FOR    CALIFORNIA. 

In  June,  1767,  the  decree  of  Charles  III.,  of  April  3, 
1767,  countersigned  by  their  confirmed  enemy,  the  Minister 
Aranda,  arrived  in  Mexico,  and  other  parts  of  Spanish 
America,  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits ;  and,  in  the 
course  of  the  ensuing  months,  some  7,000  are  said  to  have 
been  taken  in  Spanish  vessels  to  the  Pope' s  dominions  from 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  423 

different  ports  of  the  colonies  of  Spain.  This  decree  was 
pitilessly  executed  throughout  New  Spain  on  the  25th  day 
of  June,  and  the  entire  property  of  the  Order,  amounting 
to  over  $11,000,000,  as  stated  "by  some  Mexican  writers, 
was  confiscated  to  the  Crown,  and  every  Jesuit  inarched  to 
Yera  Cruz.  From  many  delays,  by  dangers  on  sea  and 
land,  this  mandate  was  not  accomplished  in  Peninsular 
California  until  the  end  of  November  following  (1767),  when 
Capt.  Gaspar  de  Portolo  arrived  in  the  country  with  a  com 
mission  from  the  Viceroy  de  Croix,  as  Governor  of  the 
Province,  accompanied  by  fifty  soldiers  to  enforce  his 
orders.  This  was  the  same  military  officer  who  became 
(in  1769)  the  first  Governor  of  New  California,  or  California 
Felix,  and  chief  of  the  expedition  of  exploration,  in  com 
pany  with  Padre  Junipero  Serra,  which  discovered  in  that 
year  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  and  the  route  to  the  same 
by  land  from  San  Diego. 

Portolo  arrived  at  Loretto  and  immediately  summoned 
Father  Ducrue,  Superior  of  the  Mission,  to  deliver  up  their 
establishments  and  the  effects  of  the  Company  into  their 
hands.  To  this  Ducrue,  a  venerable  old  man  who  had 
resided  long  years  in  the  country,  responded  that  his 
Majesty's  commands  should  be  obeyed  with  every  respect 
and  promptitude.  On  receiving  the  order  every  missionary 
Father  promptly  put  himself  on  the  road  for  the  appointed 
destination,  which  was  Loretto,  where,  to  the  number  of 
sixteen,  they  arrived,  each  with  a  small  wallet  of  clothing, 
and,  as  Clavijero  says,  having  all  the  rest  of  his  personal 
property  comprised  in  "  a  book  of  devotions,  one  of  theol 
ogy  and  one  of  history/'  Some  of  them  traveled  through 
five  hundred  miles  of  uninhabited,  sultry,  barren,  cactus- 
covered  land,  from  the  outposts  near  the  head  of  the  Gulf, 
yet  they  all  arrived  safe. 

GRIEF    OF    THE    INDIANS. THE    HOMEWARD    VOYAGE. 

Then  went  up  a  wail  from  the  simple  Indian  neophytes, 
such  as  the  rugged  and  solitary  wastes  of  California  Petrse 
had  never  before  echoed,  and  at  sixteen  different  Mission 


424  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

towns — from  Jose  del  Cabo  to  near  the  mouth  of  the  Colorado 
— 7,000  of  the  red  men  fell  down  on  their  knees  and  begged 
the  venerated  black  coats  not  to  desert  the  soil ;  not  to 
leave  their  children  unprotected  from  the  demons  roaming 
in  Pagandom.  That  could  not  be,  said  the  faithful  pastors  ; 
the  King  and  Sovereign  and  Father  of  the  land,  on  whose 
dominion  the  sun  shone  every  hour  from  its  rise  to  its  set 
ting,  and  so  continued  till  it  rose  again,  day  by  day,  had 
directed  them  to  forever  depart  from  the  land,  and  the  Great 
Monarch  would  send  them  other  care-takers,  who  must  be 
obeyed  as  their  children  obeyed  them. 

THE    FOUNDERS    OF    CALIFORNIA    TETR^E    AND    ARIZONA. 

Several  of  the  Fathers  were  venerable,  gray -haired  men, 
and  had  known  since  1710  the  younger  companions  who 
had  with  such  unwearied  zeal  and  courage  assisted  in 
founding  the  first  Missions  of  La  Paz,  Loretto,  and  San  Igna- 
cio,  under  those  ever- to-be-remembered  names  of  Kino, 
Salvaterra,  Ugarte,  Taraval  and  Piccoli,  the  apostles  and 
frontiersmen  of  the  ultima  tliule  of  the  settlement  of  Chris 
tendom.  The  Roman  Catholics  of  the  domains  and  com 
monwealths  made  out  of  ancient  California,  can  ever  affirm 
with  honest  pride  that  the  land  was  cleared  and  the  road 
made  smooth  for  all  comers  thereafter,  by  pioneers  of  the 
most  irreproachable  character  ;  noble-hearted,  learned,  and 
pious  Christian  gentlemen,  who  forsook  titles  and  honors  to 
serve  the  Redeemer  of  men,  and  build  up  the  waste  places 
among  the  miserable  solitudes  and  canons  of  godless  Cali 
fornia.  Sixteen  of  these  devout  men  left  their  bones  in  old 
California,  while  a  like  number  were  hurried  on  board  a 
small  leaky  vessel  which  bore  them,  on  the  3d  of  February, 
1768,  to  the  pestiferous  port  of  San  Bias,  from  whence  they 
were  taken  overland  to  Vera  Cruz  and  deported  to  Spain. 
In  Spain  none  of  the  expelled  Jesuits  from  the  colonies 
were  allowed  to  debark,  but  forced  to  continue  their  voy 
age,  and  were  landed  in  crowds,  after  much  suffering  and 
numerous  deaths,  mostly  in  the  Papal  States.  In  this 
territory  and  in  Venice  and  Bavaria,  they  were  allowed  to 
enter  existing  institutions  of  the  Society,  and  before  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  425 

suppression  of  the  Order  by  the  Pope  and  the  con 
quest  of  Italy  by  Napoleon,  the  Jesuits  from  Spanish 
America  compiled  large  numbers  of  most  valuable  works  of 
history  on  all  parts  of  the  New  World,  often  quoted  in  the 
columns  of  the  Bulletin,  and  which  are  to  this  day  in  high 
est  esteem  in  the  republic  of  letters  ;  among  these  are  the 
volumes  relating  to  California  and  Arizona,  written  by  De 
Hervas,  Clavijero,  Del  Barco,  Alegre,  Begert,  Steffel  and 
Pfefferkorn. 

WHAT    THEY    DID    IN    ARIZONA    AND    UPPER    AND    LOWER    CALIFORNIA. 

At  the  time  the  Jesuits  left  Baja  California  they  had  just 
established  the  frontier  Missions  of  Santa  Maria  and  San 
Francisco  Borgas,  a  short  distance  above  the  parallel  of 
Cedros  Island,  with  the  ultimate  design  of  continuing  a 
line  of  Missions  over  to  the  Colorado  to  connect  with  their 
outposts  in  South  Arizona,  then  called  Alia  Primaria,  and 
also  to  carry  them  up  the  northern  coast  as  far  as  Monterey 
Bay,  which  last  was  intended  as  a  port  for  the  Manila  gal 
leons,  and  to  open  the  trade  with  China.  Their  Missions 
in  1767  in  the  Peninsula  numbered  fourteen,  commencing 
with  San  Jose  del  Cabo  and  ending  at  Santa  Maria,  some 
twelve  leagues  east  of  the  Bay  of  Los  Angeles  on  the  Gulf, 
and  their  Indian  neophytes  amounted  to  about  7,000  souls. 
They  also  had  three  or  four  Missions  in  South  Arizona,  and 
some  twenty  others  in  Sonora,  some  of  them  founded  before 
1630,  all  of  which,  including  those  of  Lower  California,  were 
given  up  to  the  Franciscans.  In  1856  an  old  Mexican 
woman  died  at  Monterey,  over  one  hundred  years  of  age, 
who  once  informed  us  that  she  was  a  donzela  of  eleven 
the  day  when  the  Jesuit  Fathers  left  the  city  of  Mexico, 
and  on  that  eventful  day  one  of  the  most  destructive  storms 
visited  the  capital  the  people  ever  heard  of,  a  fact  vastly 
improved  by  the  friends  of  La  Sagrada  Compania,  who 
were  not  only  numerous  but  among  the  wealthiest  and  most 
devout  in  the  Vicerdyalty— particularly  those  of  th  ehigh 
families  of  the  Creoles  and  Indians. 


426  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


T:iH  FOUNDER  OF  THE  JESUITS. THEY  BEGIN  WHEN  ALTA  CALIFORNIA 

WAS    DISCOVERED. 

Ignatius  Loyola,  the  founder  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  was 
"born  in  1491,  in  the  province  of  Biscay,  during  the  time 
Columbus  was  in  Spain  entreating  Ferdinand  and  Isabella 
to  discover  the  New  World,  and  was  the  son  of  one  of  the 
oldest  families  among  the  Grandees  of  that  monarchy  and 
which  is  still  flourishing  in  the  Yascongada.  Passing  from 
the  turbulent  life  of  a  soldier,  his  whole  existence  became 
changed,  and  he  was  made  a  priest  in  1537.  In  1540,  the 
Order  wras  established  by  Pope  Paul  III.,  and  in  1541  Igna 
tius  Loyola  was  made  the  first  General  of  this  famous  mater 
nity  of  Sacerdotals.  These  facts  occurred  in  the  two  years 
when  Viceroy  Mendoza  was  forwarding  the  explorations  of 
New  Mexico  under  Coronado,  and  wrho  ordered  the  expedi 
tion  of  Rodriquez  Cabrillo  to  the  northern  seas,  which 
resulted  in  1541,  in  the  first  discovery  of  the  coasts  of  the 
State  of  California,  and  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  of  Peru 
and  before  Cortes  or  Pizarro  died.  Loyola,  eminently  the 
friend  of  the  poor  and  ignorant,  after  seeing  his  Order 
establish  over  one  hundred  colleges,  and  flourishing  in 
every  country  of  Europe,  battling  with  thundering  force 
and  effect  against  the  spread  of  this  Protestant  Reforma 
tion,  and  extending  into  India,  China,  Japan,  and  America, 
died  at  Rome,  on  the  31st  July,  1556,  at  the  age  of  sixty -five, 
and  lies  buried  at  the  celebrated  church  known  in  our  days 
as  II  Giesu,  or  of  Jesus,  and  esteemed  as  next  to  Saint 
Peter's  in  architecture  and  the  treasures  of  Italian  art.  In 
1622,  or  sixty- six  years  after  his  death,  he  was  canonized  as 
a  saint  by  Pope  Gregory  XV.,  and  has  ever  been  held  by 
the  Roman  Church  as  one  of  the  mightiest  of  its  spiritual 
warriors,  and  in  the  world  of  letters  his  fame  is  as  co-exten 
sive  as  that  of  Columbus,  Napoleon,  Cortez,  Washington, 
or  any  other  of  the  prominent  actors  in  the  human  drama 
since  the  foundation  of  the  art  of  printing  or  the  discovery 
of  the  Western  Hemisphere. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  427 


THEIR    FRIENDS    AND    ENEMIES. NO    IMPARTIAL    ACCOUNT    OF    THEIR 

HISTORY    KNOWN. 

Libraries  of  volumes  have  been  written  pro  and  con 
touching  the  Company  of  Jesus.  By  their  enemies,  who 
are  among  the  most  celebrated  names  in  politics  and  letters, 
Catholic  and  anti-Catholic,  they  are  numbered  among  the 
greatest  foes  to  human  rights,  public  liberties,  or  the  prog 
ress  of  man.  The  books  of  their  friends  are  too  generally 
filled  with  vapid  flatteries  and  compliments,  and  there 
exists  no  dispassionate  work  containing  an  intelligent  ac 
count  of  the  operations  and  history  of  the  Order  through 
out  the  world  from  its  foundation  to  the  present  day. 
Strange  to  say  no  Jesuit  writer  has  yet  given  a  full  and 
detailed  account  of  their  Society  in  the  two  Americas  for  the 
same  space  of  time  ;  nearly  all  their  chronicles  are  old,  par 
tial,  local,  and  generally  any  thing  but  full  and  complete. 
Among  the  best  of  their  works  of  history  on  Spanish  Amer 
ica  are  Clavijero's  Mexico  and  Yenega's  California,  which 
last  was  edited  by  Burriel,  a  celebrated  Jesuit  professor  of 
Madrid. 

THE    JESUITS    IN    UPPER    CALIFORNIA. 

No  Jesuit  priest  visited  or  was  known  in  new  or  Alta 
California  before  1849,  if  we  except  the  exiled  Fathers 
Bachelot  and  Short  at  San  Pedro,  from  the  Sandwich 
Islands  in  1832,  who  shortly  afterward  left  for  Chile.  In 
the  northeastern  portions  of  old  Oregon,  in  the  frontiers  of 
the  Alta  California  of  1800,  among  the  Indian  tribes  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  of  the  present  territories  of  Idaho-  and 
Montana,  known  as  the  Kootenais,  Pen  d'Oreilles,  Cceur 
d'Alenes,  Flatheads,  Nez  Perces,  and  Blackfeet,  the  Society, 
about  the  year  1839,  commenced  the  conversion  of  those 
wild  people,  under  the  supervision  of  De  Smedt,  Nobili, 
Mergarine,  Congiato,  Accolti,  Hoecken,  Joset,  and  other 
members  of  the  Order,  some  of  whom  serve  at  present  in 
the  two  colleges  at  Santa  Clara  and  San  Francisco,  and  all 
of  them  well  known  among  the  old  pioneers  of  Oregon 
ante  1848.  These  conversions  were  not  well  settled  until 


428  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

about  1846,  and  in  1861  they  had  established  six  reductions 
or  villages,  and  gathered  nearly  four  thousand  of  these 
tribes  into  the  Catholic  fold,  besides  obtaining  a  powerful 
influence,  over  the  Blackfeet,  who  numbered  fifteen  thou 
sand  souls,  by  the  estimates  of  their  missionaries.  The  great 
college  of  the  Order  at  Santa  Clara  was  founded  by  Father 
John  Nobili  in  1851,  at  the  invitation  of  Archbishop  Ale- 
many,  and  has  become  one  of  the  first  institutions  of 
learning  in  California.  Their  students  have  not  only  come 
from  all  parts  of  our  Pacific  domain,  but  from  Baja  Cali 
fornia,  Western  Mexico,  Central  America,  Ecuador,  Peru, 
and  Chile. 

PRESENT    STATUS    OF    THE    SOCIETY. 

During  the  time  of  the  first  French  Empire,  the  Society 
of  Jesus  was  re-established  again  by  the  Papal  See,  and 
since  the  opening  of  China  and  Japan,  and  the  consolida 
tion  of  the  British  empire  in  India  (1840-1863),  they  have 
again  spread  over  those  immense  countries.  In  all  the 
English  domains  and  in  the  English  tongued  American 
countries,  they  are  in  the  most  flourishing  state,  but  in  only 
a  few  of  the  Catholic  States  of  Europe  are  they  allowed  to 
hold  property  as  a  community,  and  only  permitted  to  act 
as  parish  priests  or  under  the  complete  jurisdiction  of  the 
Bishops.  In  several  of  the  Protestant  States  of  Europe, 
they  are  still  under  the  ban  of  exile,  as  well  as  other  Roman 
Catholics.  In  all  the  Spanish- American  Republics  within 
the  last  twenty  years,  they  are  now  allowed  to  establish 
their  schools  and  missions,  but  in  none  of  these  Roman 
Catholic  countries  do  they  exercise  as  much  influence,  nor 
are  their  numbers  at  all  numerous,  compared  to  other 
Catholic  Orders  or  secular  priests.  In  the  United  States 
and  in  the  British  empire  they  enjoy  all  the  liberties  and 
rights  that  are  accorded  to  all  opinions  in  religious  matters, 
and  they  not  only  therein  govern  a  large  number  of  colleges 
and  Catholic  parishes,  but  may  be  said  to  be  vastly  more 
protected  and  respected  than  in  any  State  or  nation  of  the 
Latin  race.  In  1783  their  convents,  colleges,  and  other 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  429 

effects  were  sequestered  to  the  crown  in  the  new  Italian 
kingdom,  and  to  the  number  of  thousands  they  were  re 
morselessly  turned  out  into  the  world,  great  numbers  of 
them  gray -headed  old  men,  who  had  lived  since  their  youth 
in  colleges  and  convents.  The  enemies  of  the  Jesuits  in 
Europe  have  one  crying  fault,  that  they  make  mountains  of 
diatribes  against  them  for  defending  their  personal  and  com 
munity  rights,  and  for  acting  precisely  as  all  other  men  act 
when  there  are  two  fierce  parties  in  the  field.  The  great 
mistake  of  the  Jesuits  appears  to  have  been  allying  them 
selves  to  the  State  as  coadjutors  of  their  political  policy, 
and  these,  using  them  as  tools,  have  ground  them  between 
the  upper  and  the  nether  millstones.  "  The  loss  of  every 
thing  good  is  to  be  feared,''  wrote  Loyola,  sharply,  to  Ardos, 
at  the  Court  of  Spain,  "when  Jesuits  mix  much  with  the 
great  ones  of  the  world."  The  greatest  good  of  the  greatest 
number,  says  his  biographer,  was  always  on  his  tongue. 

A  curious  fact  occurs  in  their  history,  connected  with 
American  Revolutionary  history.  When  Father  Carrol,  a 
member  of  the  Society,  and  a  cousin  of  Charles  Carrol  of 
Carrolton,  who  was  a  native  of  Maryland,  and  the  first 
Archbishop  of  Baltimore,  was  sent  by  the  old  Congress  with 
Dr.  Franklin  to  Canada,  to  stir  up  the  people  of  that  country 
to  aid  the  colonial  revolt,  gome  of  the  former  French  Jesuit 
priests  who  had  remained  in  the  country,  by  a  compact  with 
the  British  Government  that  they  should  reside  in  peace 
there,  but  without  exercising  their  functions  as  allowed 
(ante  1762)  by  the  French  monarchy,  sedulously  opposed 
Carrol's  projects,  with  the  majority  of  the  other  Catholic 
priests,  and  these  two  envoys  were  obliged  to  leave.  Both 
of  them,  however,  were  transferred  as  the  agents  of  Con 
gress  to  France,  and  every  well-informed  American  knows 
with  what  fortunate  results  to  the  cause  of  independence- 
and  freedom.  ALEX.  S.  TAYLOR,  M.  D., 

in  S.  F.  Bulletin,  January,  1808. 


430  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


TO    THE    TLIOCEXE    SKULL. 

A  HUMAN"  skull  lias  been  found  in  California  in  tlie 
pliocene  formation.  The  skull  is  the  remnant  not  only  of 
the  earliest  pioneer  of  the  State,  but  the  oldest  known 
human  being.  *  *  *  *  *  The  skull  was  found  in  a 
shaft  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  deep,  two  miles  from 
Angel's,  in  Calaveras  County,  by  a  miner  named  James 
Mat  son,  who  gave  it  to  Mr.  Scribner,  a  merchant,  and  he 
gave  it  to  Dr.  Jones,  who  sent  it  to  the  State  Geological 
Survey.  *  *  *  *  *  The  published  volume  of  the 
State  Survey  on  the  Geology  of  California  states  that  man 
existed  here  contemporaneously  with  the  mastodon,  but  this 
fossil  proves  that  he  was  here  before  the  mastodon  was 
known  to  exist. — Daily  Paper. 

"  Speak,  O  man,  less  recent !     Fragmentary  fossil ! 
Primal  pioneer  of  pliocene  formation, 
Hid  in  the  lowest  drifts  below  the  earliest  stratum 
Of  volcanic  tufa ! 

"  Older  than  the  beasts,  the  oldest  Palseotherium ; 
Older  than  the  trees,  the  oldest  Cryptogamia ; 
Older  than  the  hills,  those  infantile  eruptions 
Of  earth's  epidermis ! 

"  Eo — Mio — Plio — whatsoe'r  the  "  cenc  "  was 
That  those  vacant  sockets  filled  with  awe  and  wonder — 
Whether  shores  Devonian  or  Silurian  beaches- 
Tell  us  thy  strange  story  ! 

"  Or  has  the  Professor  slighly  antedated 
By  some  thousand  years  thy  advent  on  this  planet, 
Giving  thee  an  air  that's  somewhat  better  fitted 
For  cold-blooded  creatures  ? 

"  Wert  tliou  true  spectator  of  that  mighty  forest 
When  above  thy  head  the  beautiful  Sigillaria 
Reared  its  columned  trunks  in  that  remote  and  distant 
Carboniferous  epoch? 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


431 


"Tell  us  of  that  scene — the  dim  and  watery  woodland 
Songless,  silent,  hushed,  with  never  bird  or  insect,      [mosses, 
Veiled  with  spreading  fronds  and   screened  with  tall  cltib- 
Lycopodiacea — 

"  When  beside  thee  walked  the  solemn  Plesiosaurus, 
And  around  thee  crept  the  festive  Icthyosaurus, 
While  from  time  to  time  above  thee  flew  and  circled 
Cheerful  Pterodactyls. 


"  Tell  us  of  thy  food — those  half  marine  refections, 
Crinoids  on  the  shell  and  Brachipods  au  naturel — 
Cuttle-fish  to  which  the  pieuvre  of  Victor  Hugo 

Seems  a  periwinkle. 
/ 

"  Speak,  thou  awful  vestige  of  the  Earth's  creation- 
Solitary  fragment  of  remains  organic 
Tell  the  wondrous  secrets  of  thy  past  existence — 
Speak  !  thou  oldest  primate  !" 


432  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Even  as  I  gazed,  a  thrill  of  the  maxilla 
And  a  lateral  movement  of  the  condyloid  process, 
With  post-pliocene  sounds  of  healthy  mastication, 
Ground  the  teeth  together. 

And,  from  that  imperfect  dental  exhibition, 
Stained  with  expressed  juices  of  the  weed  Nicotian, 
Came  these  hollow  accents,  blent  with  softer  murmurs 
Of  expectoration : 

"  Which  my  name  is  Bowers,  and  my  crust  was  busted 
Falling  down  a  shaft,  in  Calaveras  County ; 
But  I'd  take  it  kindly  if  you'd  send  the  pieces 
Home  to  old  Missouri !" 

FRANK  BRET  HARTE, 

in  The   Califomian. 


THE    GULF    STREAM. 


jHE  Broadway  Magazine  for  October,  1867, 
propounds  a  theory  of  the  gulf  stream  which 
will  be  amusing  to  navigators  and  others  who 
have  studied  the  subject  of  ocean  currents 
theoretically  or  practically.  The  writer,  after 
giving  a  readable  account  of  the  gulf  stream, 
but  not  stating  and  refuting,  as  he  should  have  attempted 
to  do,  existing  explanatory  theories  before  broaching  his 
own,  claims  that  the  stream  is  a  subterranean  water,  mainly 
fed  by  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  In  other  words,  he  thinks 
that  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean  descend  into  the 
bowels  of  the  earth  through  the  vortex  of  Scylla  and 
Charybdis,  and  pass  by  an  underground  channel,  beneath 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  to  a  point  opposite  the  coast  of  Yucatan, 
where  they  issue  with  such  force  as  to  start  a  current  at  the 
rate  of  three  miles  an  hour,  which  does  not  expend  its 
momentum  until  it  has  moved  for  thousands  of  miles  along 
the  American  coast,  and  swept  past  the  British  isles  into 
the  Arctic  Sea.  This  gigantic  theory  stands,  like  a  bird  at 
roost,  upon  one  spindling  leg  of  fact. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  433 

This  fact  is,  that  an  enormous  amount  of  water  is  con 
stantly  pouring  into  the  Mediterranean  through  the  Straits 
of  Gibraltar  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  also  from  a  num 
ber  of  large  rivers,  including  the  Nile.  Where,  asks  the 
theorizer,  does  this  water  go  ?  and  he  heads  off  the  only 
true  answer  to  his  question  by  saying  "  it  is  impossible  that 
it  should  pass  off  in  exhalation."  Assuming  this  impossi 
bility,  he  revives  (for  the  idea  is  not  original  with  him),  and 
introduces  to  the  world  with  sundry  amendatory  flourishes, 
the  absurd  notion  of  the  subterranean,  natural  canal  afore 
said.  It  is  not  often  that  a  theory  can  be  effectually 
exploded  by  a  single  charge  of  critical  powder  ;  but  such 
is  the  case  with  this  one. 

Not  only  is  the  surplus  water  evaporated  from  the  Medi 
terranean,  but  the  volume  of  that  sea  would  be  still  further 
reduced  but  for  the  supply  (of  which  the  writer  takes  no 
notice)  from  the  Black  Sea  through  the  Sea  of  Marmora 
and  the  Straits  of  the  Dardanelles.  The  Black  Sea,  though 
not  quarter  as  large  as  the  Mediterranean,  receives  an 
ample  supply  from  rivers — about  one-third  of  all  the  run 
ning  waters  of  Europe  emptying  at  last  into  its  bosom. 
The  determination  of  the  current  from  the  Black  Sea,  as 
well  as  from  the  Atlantic,  into  the  Mediterranean  is  perfectly 
explained  by  the  fact  of  evaporation,  which  the  writer 
rashly  pronounced  "impossible."  The  inpouring  of  fresh 
water  from  the  tributary  rivers  and  the  fall  of  rain  being 
insufficient  to  make  good  the  losses  by  evaporation,  the 
Mediterranean  levies  upon  her  neighbors,  and  they  promptly 
honor  her  calls,  for  more  water.  That  is  the  whole  mystery, 
which  proves,  upon  examination,  to  be  no  mystery  at  all. 
The  old  bugaboo  of  Scylla  and  Chary bdis  is  reinvested 
with  its  ancient  terrors  by  this  modern  myth-maker ; 
whereas,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  not  much  of  a  whirlpool 
after  all,  and  by  no  means  dangerous  to  skillful  navigators. 
The  phenomenon  is  readily  explained  by  the  extreme  nar 
rowness  of  the  Straits  of  Messina  at  that  point,  and  the  con 
flict  of  currents  which  there  takes  place — currents  probably 
caused  by  the  influx  of  waters  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and 
the  Black  Sea. 

28 


4:34  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

The  cause  of  that  mighty  ocean  river  which  we  call  the 
gulf  stream  is  not  a  puzzle  which  requires  an  hypothesis  so 
very  far-fetched.  It  is  much  more  easily  accounted  for  by  the 
theory  of  the  great  accumulation  of  water  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  Africa,  between  the  tropics,  by  the  action  of  the 
trade  winds,  or  by  the  rotation  of  the  earth,  or  by  the  prog 
ress  of  the  tidal  wave,  or  by  the  constant  interchange  of 
cold  and  hot  waters  between  the  different  parts  of  the  globe 
necessary  to  maintain  the  equilibrium  of  temperature  in  the 
ocean  by  movements  analogous  to  those  perpetually  going 
on  in  the  atmosphere. 

If  we  should  admit  the  theory,  which  we  may  call  "for 
short"  the  "Mediterranean,"  that  would  explain  only  the 
gulf  stream.  But  there  are  numerous  other  ocean  currents, 
almost  equally  marked  in  their  differences  from  surrounding 
waters— such  as  the  "equatorial,"  the  "Japan,"  the  "Ben 
gal,"  the  "Arctic,"  the  "Antarctic,"  the  "Cape  Horn," 
the  "Peruvian,"  and  the  "Mexican."  Shall  we  suppose 
a  subterranean  stream  in  their  cases  also  ?  Certainly  not, 
unless  we  wish  to  start  paradoxes  or  propound  theories  for 
the  sake  of  seeming  original  and  audacious.  This  may  do 
very  well  in  politics,  but  it  will  not  answer  in  science. 
Currents  of  the  ocean,  like  currents  of  the  air,  move  in 
obedience  to  certain  simple  laws  for  the  equilibrizing  of 
temperature ;  and  though  we  do  not  yet  fully  understand 
them,  we  know  enough  of  them  to  save  us  from  the  necessity 
of  concocting  such  ridiculous  theories  as  the  one  upon  which 
we  have  commented. — N.  Y.  Journal  of  Commerce. 


[T  was  Lieutenant  Bent,  of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  an  officer 
of  much  scientific  merit,  and  who  was  attached 
to  the  expedition  to  Japan  under  Commodore 
Matthew  C.  Perry,  who  discovered  a  river  in  the 
ocean — the  Pacific — flowing  northward  and  east 
ward  along  the  coast  of  Asia,  corresponding  in  every  essen- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


435 


tial  point  with  the  gulf  stream  of  the  Atlantic,  and 
impinging  on  the  north  coast  of  America— imparting  its 
southern  influence  to  the  coast  of  Oregon  and  California,  to 
that  degree  that  the  winters  are  so  mild  in  latitude  48  n  north, 
that  snow  rarely  falls  there,  and  the  inhabitants  are  never 
able  to  fill  their  ice-houses  for  summer ;  and,  per  contra, 
the  vessels  trading  to  Petropaulovski,  on  the  coast  of  Kam- 
schatka,  when  becoming  un  wieldly  from  the  accumulation 
of  ice  on  their  hulls  and  rigging,  run  over  to  a  higher 
latitude  on  the  American  coast,  and  thaw  out,  in  the  same 
manner  that  sailing  vessls  frozen  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of 
America,  retreat  to  the  gulf  stream,  until  favored  by  an 
easterly  wind.  The  fountain  of  the  great  Pacific  "river  in 
the  ocean,"  from  which  this  stream  springs,  is  the  great 
equatorial  current  of  the  Pacific,  which,  in  magnitude,  is  in 
proportion  to  the  vast  extent  of  that  ocean,  when  compared 
with  the  Atlantic.  It  extends  from  the  tropic  of  Cancer,  on 
the  north,  to  Capricorn,  on  the  south,  and  has  a  width  of 
near  eight  thousand  miles ;  and,  with  a  velocity  of  from 
twenty  to  sixty  miles  per  day,  it  sweeps  to  the  westward  in 
uninterrupted  grandeur,  around  three-eighths  of  the  circum 
ference  of  the  globe,  until  diverted  by  the  continent  of 
Asia,  and  split  into  innumerable  streams  by  the  Polynesian 
Islands. 


NUMBER    OF    USEFUL    PLANTS. 

GERMAN  author  states  that  the  number  of 
useful  plants  has  risen  to  about  12,000,  but  that 
others  will  no  doubt  be  discovered,  as  the  re 
searches  yet  made  have  been  completed  in  only 
portions  of  the  earth.  Of  these  plants  there 
are  1,350  varieties  of  edible  fruits,  berries,  and  seeds  ;  108 
cereals  ;  37  onions  ;  460  vegetables  and  salads  ;  40  species 
of  palms  ;  32  varieties  of  arrow-root,  and  31  different  kinds 
of  sugars.  Various  drinks  are  obtained  from  200  plants, 
and  aromatics  from  266.  There  are  20  substitutes  for 
coffee,  and  129  for  tea.  Tannin  is  present  in  140  plants, 


436  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

caoutchouc  in  96,  gutta  percha  in  7,  rosin  and  balsamic  gums 
in  387,  wax  in  10,  and  grease  and  essential  oils  in  330  ;  88 
plants  contain  potash,  soda,  and  iodine ;  650  contain  dyes, 
1 47  soap,  266  weaving  fibers  ;  44  fibers  used  in  paper-making  ; 
48  give  roofing  materials,  and  100  are  employed  for  hurdles 
and  copses.  In  building,  740  plants  are  used,  and  there 
are  615  known  poisonous  plants.  One  of  the  most  gratifying 
developments  is,  that  of  278  known  natural  families  of 
plants,  there  are  but  18  species  for  which  no  use  has  yet 
been  discovered. 


THE   FIRST   GOLD   MINE. 

[HE  first  piece  of  gold  found  in  the  United  States 
is  said  to  have  been  found  in  Cabarras  County, 
North  Carolina,  in  1799.  It  seems,  from  the 
account  furnished  Mr.  Wheeler  by  Col.  Burn- 
bandt,  that  a  boy  named  Conrad  Reed  went 
with  his  sister  and  younger  brother  to  a  small 
stream  called  Meadow  Creek,  on  Sunday,  and  while  engaged 
along  the  bank  shooting  fish  he  saw  a  yellow  substance 
shining  in  the  water,  which  he  picked  up,  and  found  to  be 
metal.  His  father  carried  it  to  Concord,  and  showed  it  to 
William  Atkinson,  the  silversmith  of  the  town,  who  was 
unable  to  tell  what  it  was.  It  was  taken  home  by  Mr.  Reed, 
and,  being  about  the  size  of  a  small  smoothing-iron,  it  was 
used  as  a  weight  against  the  door  to  keep  it  from  shutting. 
In  1802  he  carried  it  to  market  at  Fayetteville,  where  the 
jeweler  pronounced  it  gold,  and  melted  it,  producing  a  bar 
six  or  eight  inches  long.  It  was  sold  to  the  jeweler  for 
$350,  a  big  price,  Mr.  Reed  thought.  Upon  subsequent 
examination,  gold  was  found  along  the  surface  on  Meadow 
Creek,  and  in  1803  a  piece  of  gold  was  found  in  the  stream 
that  weighed  twenty -eight  pounds.  Several  other  pieces 
were  found,  varying  from  sixteen  pounds  to  the  smallest 
particles.  The  vein  of  this  mine  was  discovered  in  1831. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  437 


CALIFORNIA. 

O  FAIR  young  land,  the  youngest,  fairest  far 

Of  which  our  world  can  boast — 
Whose  guardian  planet,  evening's  silver  star, 

Illumes  thy  golden  coast, — 

How  art  thou  conquered,  tamed  in  all  the  pride 

Of  savage  beauty  still  ! 
How  brought,  O  panther  of  the  splendid  hide, 

To  know  thy  master's  will ! 

No  more  thou  sittest  on  thy  tawny  hills 

In  indolent  repose ; 
Or  pourest  the  crystal  of  a  thousand  rills 

Down  from  thy  house  of  snows. 

But  where  the  wild  oats  wrapped  thy  knees  in  gold, 

The  plowman  drives  his  share, 
And  where,  through  canons  deep,  thy  streams  are  rolled, 

The  miner's  arm  is  bare. 

Yet  in  thy  lap,  thus  rudely  rent  and  torn, 

A  nobler  seed  shall  be  ; 
Mother  of  mighty  men,  thou  shalt  not  mourn 

Thy  lost  virginity ! 

Thy  human  children  shall  restore  the  grace 

Gone  with  thy  fallen  pines  ; 
The  wild,  barbaric  beauty  of  thy  face 

Shall  round  to  classic  lines. 

And  order,  justice,  social  law  shall  curb 

Thy  untamed  energies ; 
And  art  and  science,  with  their  dreams  superb, 

Replace  thine  ancient  ease. 

The  marble,  sleeping  in  thy  mountains  now, 

Shall  live  in  sculptures  rare  ; 
Thy  native  oak  shall  crown  the  sage's  brow — 

Thy  bay,  the  poet's  hair. 


438  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Thy  tawny  hills  shall  bleed  their  purple  wine, 

Thy  valleys  yield  their  oil; 
And  music,  with  her  eloquence  divine, 

Persuade  thy  sons  to  toil. 

Till  Hesper,  as  he  trims  his  silver  beam, 

N"o  happier  land  shall  see, 
And  earth  shall  find  her  old  Arcadian  dream 

Restored  again  in  thee  !  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 


THE    MILKY    WAY. 

THE  milky  way  forms  the  grandest  feature  of  the  firma 
ment.  It  completely  encircles  the  whole  fabric  of  the  skies, 
and  sends  its  light  down  upon  us,  according  to  the  "best 
observations,  from  no  less  than  18,000,000  of  suns.  These 
are  planted  at  various  distances,  too  remote  to  be  more 
than  little  understood ;  but  their  light,  in  the  medium  of 
measurement,  requires  for  its  transit  to  our  earth,  periods 
ranging  from  ten  to  a  thousand  years.  Such  is  the  sum  of 
the  great  truths  revealed  to  us  by  the  two  Herschels,  who, 
with  a  zeal  no  obstacles  could  daunt,  have  explored  every 
part  of  the  prodigious  circle. 

Sir  William  Herschel,  after  accomplishing  his  famous 
section,  believed  that  he  had  gauged  the  milky  way  to 
its  lowest  depth,  affirming  that  he  could  follow  a  cluster 
of  stars  with  his  telescope,  constructed  expressly  for  the 
investigation,  as  far  back  as  would  require  303,000  years 
for  the  transit  of  its  light.  But,  presumptuous  as  it  may 
seem,  we  must  be  permitted  to  doubt  this  assertion,  as  the 
same  telescope  in  the  same  master-hand  was  not  sufficiently 
powerful  to  resolve  even  the  nebulae  in  Orion.  Nor  must 
we  forget  that  light,  our  only  clue  to  those  unsearchable 
regions,  expands  and  decomposes  in  its  progress,  and,  com 
ing  from  a  point  so  remote,  its  radiant  waves  could  be  dis 
persed  in  space.  Thus  the  reflection  is  forced  upon  us, 
that  new  clusters  and  systems,  whose  beaming  light  will 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


439 


never  reacli  our  earth,  still  throng  beyond,  and  that, 
though  it  is  permitted  to  man  to  "behold  the  immensity, 
he  shall  never  see  the  "bounds  of  creation. — Marvels  of 
Science. 


CONCLUSION    OF    JOHN    B.    F ELTON  S    ORATION    AT    THE    DEDICATION     OF 
THE    NEW  MERCANTILE    LIBRARY  BUILDING  IN  SAN  FRANCISCO,  JUNE 

18,  1868. 


'ND  now  I  dedicate  this  temple  to  the  true 
mercantile  spirit — to  the  spirit  of  true  honesty, 
which,  rejecting  the  letter  of  the  written  con 
tract,  looks  to  its  spirit,  which,  disdaining  all 
deceit,  all  mean  and  petty  advantages,  takes 
the  just  for  its  rule  and  guide  ;  to  the  spirit  of  true  equality, 
which,  stripping  off  from  man  all  accidental  circumstances, 
respects  and  reverences  him  according  to  his  merit ;  to  the 
spirit  of  enterprise,  whose  field  is  the  earth,  the  air,  the  sea, 
the  sky,  and  all  that  in  them  is  ;  to  the  spirit  of  munificence, 
that  never  tires  in  lavishing  its  treasures  on  all  good  objects, 
on  the  scientific  expedition,  on  the  library,  the  University, 
on  the  cause  of  religion,  and  on  the  soldier  battling  for  the 
right ;  to  the  spirit  of  loyalty,  that  submits  calmly  and 
patiently  to  that  great  bond  which  holds  society  together — 
the  law — which  aims  to  reform,  but  never  to  resist  or  over 
throw  ;  to  the  spirit  of  patriotism,  which  follows  with 
affection,  pride,  and  devotion  the  daring  mark  of  our 
country' s  flag  ;  and  to  the  spirit  which  worships  Grod. 


440  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


THRILLING    ADVENTURE    WITH    A    BURGLAR. 


[HIS  extract,  from  a  reminiscence  concerning  a 
series  of  murders  committed  some  years  since 
in  France,  develops  a  rare  instance  of  presence 
of  mind  in  women.  We  will  premise  that  the 
murderer  was  known  by  the  fact  that  in  some 
previous  brawl  or  scene  of  murder  he  had  lost 
three  fingers  from  one  of  his  hands. 

There  lived  on  the  outskirts  of  Dieppe  a  widow  lady  by 
the  name  of  Beaumaurice.  She  had  no  family,  but  with 
one  servant  girl  lived  in  a  very  retired  manner.  The  cottage 
in  which  she  resided  was  situated  about  half  a  mile  from 
the  city,  a  little  off  from  the  public  road. 

Madame  Beaumaurice  had  been  the  wife  of  an  officer  of 
the  Guards.  She  was  an  extraordinary  woman  in  every 
particular  ;  but  especially  so  in  respect  to  a  certain  coolness 
of  character  she  possessed  in  the  midst  of  danger,  which, 
together  with  a  large  amount  of  moral  courage,  made  her  a 
very  notable  person.  The  recent  murders  made,  perhaps, 
less  impression  on  her  mind  than  upon  any  one  else  in 
Dieppe,  although  it  was  naturally  supposed  the  retired 
situation  in  which  she  lived  would  have  caused  her  to  be 
more  fearful. 

About  ten  o'clock  on  the  night  of  the  30th  of  April,  just 
ten  days  after  the  murders  in  the  Rue  Grenard,  Madame 
Beaumaurice  went  up  into  her  bedroom.  She  was  suffer 
ing  from  a  nervous  headache.  She  felt  very  sleepy,  and 
seated  herself.  The  lamp  was  placed  on  a  chest  of  drawers 
behind  her.  Opposite  to  her  was  a  toilet  table,  with  a  cloth 
on  it  reaching  to  the  floor.  She  had  already  commenced 
taking  off  her  clothes,  when,  happening  to  look  around  her 
she  saw  some  thing  that  for  a  moment  chilled  her  blood. 
It  was  the  shadow  of  a  man's  hand  on  the  floor.  The 
hand  had  lost  three  fingers. 

She  divined  the  truth  in  a  moment — the  assassin  was 
there — in  her  house — under  the  table.  She  made  not  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  441 

least  motion  or  sign,  but  reflected  two  or  three  minutes  as 
to  the  best  course  to  be  pursued. 

She  divined  what  to  do,  and  advancing  to  the  door,  called 
the  servant  maid. 

"  Oh,  Mary!"  exclaimed  she,  when  the  girl  entered  the 
room,  "  do  you  know  where  Mons.  Bernard  lives  ?" 

"  Yes,  Madame." 

"  I  have  to  pay  5,000  francs  away  very  early  in  the  morn 
ing.  You  will  have  to  run  to  his  house  and  get  money  for 
me." 

"Very  well,  Madame." 

"  I  will  write  a  note,  which  you  will  deliver  to  him,  and 
he  will  give  you  bank  bills  to  the  amount." 

She  wrote  as  follows  : — 

My  dear  Monsieur  Bernard — The  assassin  of  the  Rue  des 
Armes  and  the  Rue  Grenard  is  in  my  house.  Come  imme 
diately  with  some  gens  d'armes,  and  take  him  before  he 
escapes.  HELENNE  BEAUMAURICE. 

And,  without  entering  into  any  explanation  with  her  ser 
vant,  she  dispatched  her  on  her  errand.  She  then  quietly 
reseated  herself  and  waited. 

Yes,  she  sat  in  the  room,  with  that  man  under  the  table, 
for  a  whole  hour.  She  sat,  calm,  cool,  and  collected.  She 
saw  the  shadow  of  the  hand  shift  several  times,  but  the 
murderer  did  not  make  any  attempt  to  escape  from  his  place 
of  concealment. 

In  due  time,  the  gens  d'armes  arrived,  and  Jacques 
Reynaulds  was  arrested — not,  however,  without  a  violent 
struggle. 

I  need  scarcely  add  that  the  most  convincing  proof  as  to 
his  guilt  was  found,  and  in  due  time  he  was  guillotined. 


442  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


CALIFORNIA    SCENERY. 


jHE  Grayson  picture  is  in  the  collection  of  the 
Mercantile  Library  of  San  Francisco.  Gazing 
P|?  upon  it  and  following  its  suggestions  rather 
!p  than  criticising  its  execution,  one  can  imagine 
^  the  feelings  of  that  pioneer  family,  who,  after 
weeks  of  weary  travel  across  the  wide  and 
desolate  plains  of  the  middle  continent,  and  days  of  weary 
climbing  up  rocky  steeps,  through  many  dangers  real  or 
imaginary,  have  reached  the  Pisgah  of  their  hopes,  and  are 
looking  down  upon  the  promised  land  lying  in  its  still 
beauty  like  the  sleeping  Princess  of  the  story,  waiting  but 
the  kiss  of  Enterprise  to  spring  into  energetic  life.  There 
below  them  is  not  only  the  field  for  industry  and  enterprise, 
but  a  panorama  of  natural  charms  destined  to  inspire  poets, 
to  glow  on  the  canvas  of  painters,  and  to  take  on  the  magic 
of  human  associations  and  tradition.  The  piney  slopes  are 
musical  with  the  gurgle  of  hidden  waters  tumbling  from  the 
rim  of  still  lakes  ;  the  coniferous  woods  open  like  columned 
aisles  ;  silver  mists  hide  the  wandering  streams  in  abysmal 
canons  ;  purple  ridges  wall  the  bright  sky  in  straight  lines 
to  left  and  right ;  below  them  imagination  pictures  the 
billowy  foot-hills,  tawny  with  dry  stubble,  and  islanded 
with  oaks  of  never-failing  verdure  ;  while  still  beneath  and 
beyond,  the  broad  valley  of  the  Sacramento  shimmers  in  its 
summer  gold  that  spring  will  turn  to  a  variegated  parterre, 
and  from  its  western  verge  rises  the  Coast  Range,  soft  as 
cloud-land  mountains,  looking  into  the  Pacific.  Over  this 
scene  are  spread  those  delicious  tints  of  blue  and  purple  and 
gold,  those  blending  shades  of  violet,  lilac  and  topaz,  which 
give  to  the  landscapes  of  California  all  the  charm  of  fairy 
illusion.  This  is  the  Rasselas  Valley  of  sober  fact,  Here 
beauty  awaits  the  poet  who  shall  praise  and  the  limner  who 
shall  copy  her  manifold  fascinations. — Overland  Monthly, 
July,  1868. 


WI7BRSITT 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  443 


LIFE. 


IFE  !  what  a  gift  it  is  in  contrast  with  non-exist 
ence.  Life,  even  the  lowliest,  a  flower's  life, 
a  bird's!  How  the  lily  and  the  lark  praise 
God  for  their  being,  till  the  air  seems  odorous 
and  musical  with  their  thanksgiving.  Yet  the 
winged  bird  is  a  poor  soulless  wanderer,  and 
the  brightest  flower  dies  with  the  summer.  How,  then, 
with  your  life — an  immortal  life,  bearing  God's  image!— 
can  you  be  thankless  ?  A  life  so  conditioned  for  develop 
ment,  cradled  in  a  star-hung  world,  and  watched  and  warded 
by  angels,  and  preparing  and  advancing  to  a  destiny  for 
whose  glory  thought  has  no  image  and  language  no  name  ! 
Men,  immortal  men,  sons  of  God,  princes  of  an  endless 
empire,  borne  in  this  chariot  of  creation  to  the  palace  and 
the  throne  ! — you  who  might  have  been  a  fading  flower, 
a  dead  stone,  a  nothing — how  can  you  be  thankless  2  You, 
whose  afflictions  at  their  most,  in  contrast  with  your  mer 
cies,  are  no  more  than  a  single  plume  gone  from  the  wing 
of  a  soaring  eagle — a  stain  of  dust  on  the  iron  wheel  of  the 
golden  car  of  a  triumphing  conqueror  !  What  mean  you, 
thanklessly  to  count  your  losses,  and  trials,  and  sorrows  ? 
Awake  to  better  thoughts  and  higher  moods !  Lift  your 
eye  from  the  low  paths  you  are  treading,  to  the  divine 
love  that  watches  you,  the  shining  angels  that  wait  on  you, 
the  eternal  city  that  opens  its  glorious  gates  to  welcome 
you  \-Rev.  Dr.  WadswortJi,  in  the  Occident,  Jan.  4,  1867. 


TAMALPAIS. 

NORTHWARD  lie  lies  from  our  home  in  the  town ; 

Over  the  ribbon  of  water  that  flings 
A  silver  ruffle  about  his  brown 

Harsh  hem  in  its  tremulous  eddyings. 
Old  Tamalpais  !  he  looks  so  grave, 
With  his  brow  in  the  cloud  and  his  chin  in  the  wave. 


444  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Grand  old  monitor  !  proud  in  his  might ! 

Silent  and  watchful,  guarding  us  well, 
Is  it  his  eye  that  is  piercing  the  night, 

Or  a  giddy  star  that  he  caught  as  it  fell  ? 
Old  fellow,  'tis  fitting  and  meet  that  you  are 
In  imperial  majesty  crowned  with  a  star! 

He  is  so  old  that  his  wrinkled  hide 

Is  gray  as  a  frown  on  the  rough,  mad  sea ; 

But  his  might  is  alive,  and  the  hurricanes  glide 
Not  easily  by  him ;  Jie  scatters  the  glee 

Of  the  wild,  roving  winds ;  you  may  know  when  he  wakes 

In  a  laugh,  for  the  echoing  earth  fairly  quakes. 

Broad  banners  of  mist  thread  in  through  the  Gate, 
And  gather  about  him  as  cold  as  a  shroud  ; 

But  little  he  cares,  for  his  bare,  hoary  pate 

Is  capped  with  the  sunlight  far  over  the  cloud. 

Brave  Tamalpais  !  he  looks  so  grand, 

Bluffing  the  ocean  off,  guarding  the  land ! 

CHAKLES  WABEEX  STODDAKD,  in  the  Calif  or  nian. 


CHILD-LAND. 


THERE  is  a  vein  of  human  feeling  that  will  waken  a 
responsive  cord  in  every  heart  unseared  by  worldly  pur 
suits,  in  this  eloquent  poem  :— 

Through  silver  portals  arched  with  flowers, 

And  turning  in  with  silver  sound, 
Attended  by  the  laughing  Hours, 

And  fairy  music  floating  round 
In  crystal  circles  till  it  weaves 

A  magic  spell  that  softly  breaks 

In  trembling  murmurs  on  the  lakes, 
Like  melody  of  falling  leaves — 

With  roses  crowned,  a  frolic  band 

Go  ever  trooping  in  to  Youth's  enchanted  land. 

An  Eden-realm  of  honeyed  streams, 

And  shifting  lights  that  touch  and  change, 

With  crimson  flecks  and  golden  gleams, 
The  landscape  into  something  strange ; 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  445 

And  gorgeous  fabrics  floating  through 

The  liquid  sky  into  the  west, 

And  on  the  sunset's  flaming  breast, 
Like  dying  dolphins,  changing  hue  ; 

And  purple  mornings,  lit  with  gems, 

Capping  the  blooming  hills  with  jeweled  diadems. 

And  falling  waters  waving  down 

In  snowy  veils  that  break  and  spread 
In  diamond  showers,  and  lift  a  crown 

Of  circling  rainbows  overhead  ; 
And  meadows  golden-draperied, 

With  lights  and  shadows  woven  in ; 

And  fountains  musical  with  din 
O:f  laughing  Naiads,  faintly  heard  ; 

And  sunny  meres  and  groves  and  vales 

Where  fauns  and  sylvans  sport  and  breathe  their  evening  tales. 

And  tricksy  fairies  in  the  realm 

Weave  mystic  circles  on  the  green, 
And  dance  beneath  the  aged  elm 

In  honor  of  their  beauteous  queen  ; 
Or  ring  their  tiny  heather-bells, 

And  sound  their  buo;le-horns  until 

O 

Swift  echoes  fly  from  hill  to  hill, 
And  die  along  the  winding  dells ; 
Or  flit  athwart  the  moonlit  skies 
On  winged  thistle-downs  and  silver  fire-flies. 

And  pleasures  wed  with  rosy  joys 

Forever  mingle  with  the  band 
Of  winsome  girls  and  gleesome  boys 

That  dwell  within  the  charmed  land ; 
And  warbling  music  lulls  to  rest, 

While  airy  dreams  and  visions  fine, 

Touched  with  a  beauty  half  divine, 
Throng  in  upon  the  sinless  breast ; 

And  angels,  hovering  round  the  while, 

Kiss  oft  the  dreamers'  lips  and  wreathe  them  with  a  smile. 
O  happy  land  !     O  happy  days  ! 

And  happy  dwellers,  loved  of  God  ! 
Along  whose  flowery  paths  and  ways 

Celestial  feet  have  often  trod. 


446  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Through  misty  years  that  gather  fast, 
With  weary  toil  and  patience  fraught, 
How  oft  I  turn  and  feed  my  thought 

On  golden  echoes  from  the  Past, 
And  gaze  until  my  eyes  grow  dim 
Where  at  the  portals  stand  the  flaming  cherubim. 

LYMAN  R.  GOODMAN. 


SELECTIONS    FROM    A    LECTURE-SERMON    AFTER    VISITING    YOSEMITE 

VALLEY. 

Delivered  in  San  Francisco,  July  29,   1860,   ~by  Rev.   T. 

STAKE  KING. 


FRESH  impression  of  the  marvels  of  nature 
always  awakens  a  religious  emotion.  I  thought 
of  this  more  seriously  than  ever  before,  when, 
about  two  weeks  ago,  I  first  looked  down  from 
the  Mariposa  trail  into  the  tremendous  fissure 
of  the  Sierras.  The  place  is  fitly  called  ' '  Inspiration  Point." 
The  shock  to  the  senses  there,  as  one  rides  out  from  the 
level  and  sheltered  forest,  up  to  which  our  horses  had  been 
climbing  two  days,  is  scarcely  less  than  if  he  had  been 
instantly  borne  to  a  region  where  the  Creator  reveals  more 
of  himself  in  his  works  than  can  be  learned  from  the  ordi 
nary  scenery  of  this  world.  We  stood,  almost  without 
warning,  on  the  summit  of  the  southerly  wall  of  the  valley, 
and  obtained  our  first  impression  of  its  depth  and  grandeur 
by  looking  down.  A  vast  trench,  cloven  by  Omnipotence 
amid  a  tumult  of  mountains,  yawned  beneath  us.  The 
length  of  it  was  seven  or  eight  miles  ;  the  sides  of  it  were 
bare  rock,  and  they  were  perpendicular.  They  did  not 
flow  or  subside  to  the  valley  in  charming  curve-lines,  such 
as  I  have  seen  in  the  wildest  passes  of  the  New  England 
mountains.  The  walls  were  firm  and  sheer.  A  man  could 
have  found  places  where  he  could  have  jumped  three  thou 
sand  feet  in  one  descent  to  the  valley.  More  than  a  thousand 
feet  beneath  us  was  the  arching  head  of  a  waterfall,  that 
leaped  another  thousand  before  its  widening  spray  shat- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  447 

tered  itself  into  finer  mists  in  a  rocky  dell.  The  roar  of  it 
was  a  slight  murmur  at  our  elevation.  On  the  wall  opposite, 
about  a  mile  across  the  gulf,  a  brook  was  pouring  itself  to 
the  valley.  Although  it  was  slipping  down  more  than 
half  a  mile  of  undisturbed  depth,  it  appeared  to  be  creeping 
at  its  own  will  and  leisure.  We  could  not  believe  that  the 
awful  force  of  gravitation  was  controlling  it. 

"  But  like  a  downward  smoke,  the  slender  stream 
Along  the  cliff  to  fall  and  pause  and  fall  did  seem." 

Noble  trees  of  two  hundred  feet  stature,  by  the  river-side 
below,  were  tiny  shrubs.  The  river  itself  lay  like  a  bow 
of  glass  upon  the  curved  green  meadow  which  nestled  so 
peacefully  under  the  shadow  of  the  Egyptian  walls.  And 
off  from  the  northernmost  cliff,  retreating  a  mile  or  two  from 
it,  soared  a  bare,  wedge-like  summit  of  one  of  the  Sierras- 
ashy  in  hue,  springing  above  a  vast  field  of  snow  which 
could  not  cling  to  its  steep  smoothness,  but  lay  quietly 
melting  to  feed  the  foam  and  music  of  a  cataract. 

All  this,  no  doubt,  seems  tame  enough  in  the  wording ; 
and  even  if  a  vivid  picture  of  the  actual  scene  could  be 
given  here  by  an  adequate  description,  some  of  you  might 
say  that  it  is  only  a  pile  of  rock  overhanging  a  river-course 
—not  very  remarkable,  and  certainly  not  religiously  sug 
gestive. 

But  I  do  not  think  that  there  was  one  in  our  party  who 
had  the  feeling,  when  that  surprising  view  first  broke  upon 
us,  that  he  was  looking  merely  upon  a  freak  of  natural 
forces,  or  a  patch  of  chaos.  I  am  sure  we  all  felt  that  some 
thing  more  than  matter  was  shown  to  us — a  clearer  gleam  of 
the  Infinite  Majesty.  I  believe  that  the  impression  was,  in 
some  degree,  like  that  which  the  Israelites  felt  amid  the 
passes  of  Sinai,  when  the  Divine  glory  was  on  the  mount. 
If  the  emotion  which  that  first  view  excited  could  remain 
with  us,  I  am  sure  that  all  life  would  be  more  reverent  and 
loyal. 

And  that  is  a  large  portion  of  the  value  of  such  impress 
ive  wonders  in  nature.  They  break  in,  for  a  moment,  if 
no  more,  upon  our  materialistic  and  skeptical  estimate  of  the 


448  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

world,  and  show  us  that  it  is  penetrated  with  Divine  mean 
ing — that  it  is  an  expression  of  Infinite  power  and  thought. 
Unless  we  become  atheists,  we  have  no  right  to  live  unmoved 
and  indifferent  amid  the  processes  of  nature.  Have  you 
ever  considered  what  the  relation  of  the  Divine  mind  is  to  a 
mighty  cliff,  to  a  sublime  mountain,  to  a  lovely  landscape  ? 
God  creates  it  and  renews  it  by  tlie  direct,  immediate  action 
of  Ids  conscious  thought.  We  looked  suddenly  upon  the 
grandeur  of  the  Yosemite  Valley,  and  perhaps  a  year's 
residence  at  that  "  Inspiration  Point,"  might  so  exhaust  our 
interest  in  it,  as  to  make  it  uninspiring.  It  is  not  more  than 
ten  years  since  the  first  white  man  gazed  upon  those  cliffs 
and  ramparts.  Yet  how  many  thousands  of  centuries  have 
they  been  fashioned  under  the  Almighty  hand  !  Since  the 
morning  when  Adam  first  looked  upon  the  world,  they  have 
stood  strong  and  venerable  as  now.  And  ages  before  the 
creation  of  the  ancestral  man,  the  processes  were  at  work  in 
that  valley,  hardening  the  rock,  preparing  the  soil,  varying 
the  verdure,  channeling  the  paths  of  the  streams,  that  the 
picture  which  we  looked  upon  might  be  finished.  Think  of 
the  months  of  toil  and  the  delicacies  of  technical  skill  in 
laying  in  the  color,  and  adjusting  the  lights  and  perspective, 
which  an  artist  sometimes  expends  upon  one  mimic  land 
scape.  And  in  comparison  with  that,  remember  that  every 
great  landscape,  like  the  one  I  am  speaking  of,  is  a  real 
picture  which  the  Infinite  Mind  has  been  at  work  upon 
during  immeasurable  centuries.  Every  natural  force  is  one 
of  his  pencils ;  every  variety  of  substance  is  one  of  his 
colors ;  and  every  nice  effect  of  grace  or  majesty  has  cost, 
perhaps,  ten  thousand  years  and  all  the  resources  of  the 
natural  world.  Is  it  right,  therefore,  for  us  to  take  so  little 
interest  in  the  glories  of  nature  ? — ought  we  not  to  be  far 
more  frequently  and  deeply  moved  by  them,  when  we 
reflect  that  God  has  cared  for  them  during  countless  years  ? 
If  he  had  not  been  interested  in  the  cliffs  and  pillars  of 
that  valley  among  the  Sierras  ages  before  we  were  born,  and 
continuously  interested  in  them  ; — if  for  one  moment  in  all 
the  stretch  of  time  which  geology  reports  on  its  huge  dial, 
his  care  and  thought  had  wandered  from  them,  they  would 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  449 

have  dropped  into  nothingness.  For  of  the  Divine  Wisdom 
it  is  written  in  the  Proverbs:  "AVhen  he  prepared  the 
heavens,  I  was  there  :  when  he  set  a  compass  upon  the  face 
of  the  depth  :  when  he  established  the  clouds  above  :  when 
he  gave  to  the  sea  his  decree  that  the  waters  should  not 
pass  his  commandment :  when  he  appointed  the  foundations 
of  the  earth  : — then  I  was  by  him,  as  one  brought  up  with 
him  :  and  I  was  daily  his  delight,  rejoicing  always  before 
him."  This  means  that  all  outward  order  and  beauty  are 
copies  in  matter  from  an  ideal  picture  first  formed  in  the 
Divine  Reason.  It  means,  also,  that  he  who  is  insensible  to 
the  wonders  of  nature  is  indiiferent  to  the  patient  and  con 
tinuous  art  of  God. 

When  we  pass  down  by  the  steep  trail  from  the  top  of 
the  wall  into  the  valley,  to  its  floor,  and  begin  to  examine 
its  features  in  detail,  the  religious  impressions  become  more 
varied  and  distinct.  If  there  are  any  especially  religious 
impressions  to  be  gained  at  all  by  seeing  majestic  rock 
scenery,  the  Yosemite  is  the  place  to  receive  them  most 
powerfully.  For,  so  far  as  we  know,  it  offers  the  most 
stupendous  specimens  of  natural  masonry  to  be  seen  on  our 
globe.  Switzerland  has  no  gorge  that  compares  with  it. 
The  pass  of  the  Tete  Noir,  the  ruggedness  of  the  Yia  Mala, 
the  cliffs  of  the  Splugen,  the  precipice  over  which  the  Staub- 
bach  shakes  itself  into  water- dust,  can  not  compete  with  the 
walls  and  pinnacles  of  the  Yosemite.  The  desolate  and 
splintered  walls  of  Sinai  and  Horeb  are  not  a  quarter  so 
high.  No  explored  district  of  the  highest  Andes  displays 
such  masses  of  clean,  abrupt  rock.  The  Himalayas  alone 
can  furnish  competitors  for  its  walls  and  turrets,  if  any 
portion  of  the  earth  can — and  I  have  no  knowledge  that 
they  are  able  to.  We  often  read,  in  accounts  of  mountain 
districts  or  mountain-climbing,  about  precipices  that  are 
thousands  of  feet  in  descent,  or  of  cliffs  that  spring  naked 
and  sheer  to  an  equal  height.  The  statements,  however, 
are  almost  always  extravagant  exaggerations.  But  in  the 
Yosemite,  a  man  may  ride  close  to  a  crag,  whose  summit, 
as  he  holds  his  head  back  to  discern  it,  is  more  than  three 
thousand  feet  above  him.  He  may  stand  in  the  spray  of  a 

29 


450  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

waterfall  and  see,  forty-three  hundred  feet  over  his  head, 
the  edge  of  a  mountain-wall  that  shields  the  water  from  the 
early  afternoon  sun.  He  may  look  up  to  a  tower,  which 
resembles  an  incomplete  spire  of  a  gothic  minster,  and  see 
its  broken  edges  softened  by  more  than  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  of  distance  directly  above  his  eyes.  He  may  sit  at 
evening,  when  the  sun  has  retreated  from  every  portion  of 
the  valley,  and  look  at  the  "  South  Dome,"  a  vast  globe  of 
bald  rock  almost  a  full  mile  in  height,  while  the  sunset  is 
sheathing  it  with  impalpable  gold.  Or  he  may  lie,  at  noon, 
beneath  a  tree  at  the  base  of  one  wall  of  the  valley,  and 
allow  his  eye  to  wander  up  at  leisure  the  magnificent  battle 
ment  called  "  El  Capitan."  It  is  not  so  high  as  some  of  the 
others  I  have  named,  for  it  is  a  little  less  than  four  thousand 
feet.  But  there  is  not  a  crevice  in  it  where  any  thing  green 
can  lodge  and  grow.  There  is  no  mark  or  line  of  stratifica 
tion.  There  is  no  crack  in  its  huge  mass.  It  is  one  piece 
of  solid,  savage  granite,  which  seems  to  have  sprung  up 
over  the  flowing  river  and  the  fertile  meadow,  to  show,  by 
contrast,  what  the  majesty  of  the  Infinite  is  as  compared 
with  his  beneficence,  and  how  tremendous  are  the  forces  of 
cohesion  that  have  compacted  the  bones  of  the  globe. 

No  one  can  look  at  such  pinnacles  and  ramparts  without 
a  feeling  of  awe  such  as  he  has  seldom  experienced.  And 
why  is  it?,  Not  simply  because  the  rocks  are  so  high  and 
so  massive.  Not  merely  because  so  powerful  an  impression 
has  been  made  on  our  senses,  Many  a  bear  has  wound  his 
way  down  those  walls  without  feeling  any  sense  of  sublim 
ity.  Many  a  deer,  with  eyesight  keener  than  man's,  has 
drunk  from  the  calm  pools  of  the  river,  and  looked  up  to 
the  crown  of  one  of  those  proud  crags  without  any  emotion 
that  interfered  with  the  satisfaction  of  his  thirst.  It  is  only 
the  senses  of  man  that  appreciate  the  majesty  revealed  in 
matter.  And  it  is  because  they  are  connected  with  spiritual 
powers  in  us.  Our  senses  are  only  tubes  and  lenses  through 
which  the  mind  and  soul,  through  which  an  immortal  fac 
ulty,  looks  out  upon  the  world.  And  if  they  discern  what 
the  beasts  can  not  detect,  if  their  reach  is  so  wide  and  high, 
if  their  objects  are  so  grand  and  varied,  what  must  the  soul 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  451 

be  to  which  they  are  vassals  ?  What  is  this  inward  em 
peror  whose  servants  are  kings  \  Shall  we  believe  in  the 
senses,  and  not  believe  more  reverently  in  the  soul  they 
honor,  and  which  ennobles  them  ?  Shall  we  use  these  mar 
velous  ministers  to  which  the  grandeurs  of  space  report, 
and  not  believe  in  the  central  and  mysterious  power  that  is 
educated  by  the  material  which  these  clerkly  senses  gather? 
Yea,  shall  we  not  care  for  the  spirit  which  thrills  the  senses 
with  their  finest  life,  and  overflows  upon  them  its  own 
divinity  ?  Shall  we  not  learn  that  our  inward  nature  is 
heaven-born  from  the  greatness  of  our  senses,  and  as  it  is 
set  in  commerce  with  God's  works  through  its  physical 
attributes,  strive  to  guard  it  against  evil,  which  abases  the 
frame  that  is  made  for  its  present  home,  and  keeps  it  from 
communion  with  God  himself,  who  has  opened  other  chan 
nels,  in  its  own  essence,  for  direct  intercourse  with  his 
love? 

I  believe  that  such  questions  ought  to  rise  in  every  nature 
that  receives  a  thrill  of  sublime  and  reverential  emotion  from 
such  natural  scenery  as  the  Yosemite.  God  is  patiently 
educating  us  here  to  a  knowledge  of  what  we  are.  And 
when  any  human  being  attains  that  knowledge,  the  soul 
must  be  religious,  or  must  try  to  be.  No  person  can  learn 
why  it  is  that  he  is  capable  of  seeing  something  majestic, 
mysterious,  sublime,  in  a  wall  of  granite,  without  revering 
his  nature  after  it,  and  feeling  that  he  has  a  power  within 
him  which  is  a  divine  trust.  It  is  because  we  are  religious 
beings  that  we  see  in  the  mountains  and  the  cliffs  what  the 
brutes  that  inhabit  them  can  not  see  ;  and  if  we  go  to  the 
grandest  scenery  unprepared  to  receive  stimulant  to  our 
religious  nature  from  it,  and  return  from  the  sight  of  natural 
wonders  uninspired  in  our  devout  sensibilities,  we  lose  the 
richest  result  which  the  natural  magnificence  was  intended 
to  produce  in  us,  whatever  physical  refreshment  and  de 
light  we  may  have  gained,  and  whatever  secular  knowledge 
we  may  have  reaped  from  the  excursion.  Our  true  sight 
seeing  is  accomplished,  when  ' '  the  invisible  things  of  Mm 
are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things  which  are 
made,  even  his  eternal  power  and  Godhead." 


452  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

This  quotation  just  made  from  St.  Paul  leads  me  to  speak 
of  another  point  which  the  visit  to  the  Yosemite  has  im 
pressed  anew  upon  my  mind — the  fertility  and  aptness  of 
the  illustrations  which  the  Bible  offers  for  the  grandest 
natural  scenery.  The  Bible  displays  some  spiritual  passage 
for  every  emergency  of  our  religious  discipline  and  need. 
This  is  one  of  the  chief  seals  of  its  providential  relations  to 
the  spiritual  training  of  the  world.  But  it  is  equally  re 
markable  that  the  most  stirring  scenes  in  nature,  and  even 
the  sublimest  discoveries  of  science,  seem  to  wait  for  their 
fitting  dress  of  description,  until  some  verse  from  the  old 
Hebrew  seers  starts  out  to  offer  its  epithets  and  rhythm. 
He  Avho  goes  into  the  most  inspiring  scenes  of  nature  with 
out  a  familiar  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  and  readiness  to 
quote  it,  loses  one  of  the  purest  sources  of  pleasure  at  the 
moment,  and  one  of  the  most  valuable  means  of  fixing  in 
his  memory  and  heart  the  character  and  influence  of  the 
scenes  themselves. 

No  man  could  fail  to  be  deeply  and  religiously  impressed 
witli  the  first  view  of  the  valley  as  I  alluded  to  it,  when 
one  stands  over  it  and  looks  down  into  its  trench.  There 
may  be  passages  of  secular  poetry  that  can  describe  some 
effects  of  its  perpendicular  walls.  But  only  a  man  familiar 
with  the  prophets  could  concentrate  the  whole  grandeur 
and  religious  suggestiveness  of  the  view  by  a  quotation. 
And  he  would  chant  out  at  once  the  sublime  verse  from 
Zechariah :  "And  the  feet  of  Jehovah  shall  stand  in  that 
day  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives,  which  is  before  Jerusalem 
on  the  east,  and  the  Mount  of  Olives  shall  cleave  in  the 
midst  thereof,  toward  the  east  and  toward  the  west,  and 
there  shall  be  a  very  great  valley;  and  half  of  the  mountain 
shall  remove  toward  the  north,  and  half  of  it  toward  the 
south.  And  ye  shall  flee  to  the  valley  of  the  mountains.'' 

Or  suppose  that  standing  on  that  height,  over  the  yawning 
rent,  a  man  should  strive  to  picture  to  himself  the  earthquake 
forces  that  tore  those  cliffs  apart,  and  opened  a  channel  for 
the  river  so  peacefully  gliding  and  shining  far  below.  What 
words  could  science  give  him,  what  passages  from  Buckland 
or  Lyell,  from  Hugh  Miller  or  Agassiz  or  Humboldt,  that 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  453 

would  compare  for  a  moment  with  the  burden  and  fervor 
of  these  mighty  verses  from  Ilabakkuk  ?  "  Jehovah  stood 
and  measured  the  earth  ;  and  the  everlasting  mountains 
were  scattered,  the  perpetual  hills  did  bow  :  his  ways  are 
everlasting.  I  saw  the  tents  of  Cushan  in  affliction  :  and  the 
curtains  of  the  land  of  Midian  did  tremble.  *  *  TJiou 
didst  cleave  the  earth  with  rivers.  The  mountains  saw  thee 
and  they  trembled :  the  overflowing  of  the  water  passed 
by."  Even  the  whiteness  around  the  cones  of  the  distant 
Sierras  suggested  the  passage  from  Jeremiah — "  Will  a  man 
leave  the  snow  of  Lebanon  which  cometh  from  the  rock  of 
the  field «  or  shall  the  cold  flowing  waters  that  come  from 
another  place  be  forsaken  ?  '* 

Sitting  in  the  valley  to  enjoy  from  a  distance  the  beauty 
of  the  waterfalls,  or  exploring  their  basins  and  their  paths, 
a  great  number  of  exquisite  poetic  verses  from  the  Prophets 
and  Psalms  sing  themselves  through  the  memory  to  the 
music  of  the  cataracts.  "He  watereth  the  hills  from  his 
chambers :  the  earth  is  satisfied  with  the  fruit  of  his  works." 
"The  floods,  O  Lord,  have  lifted  up  their  voice.  The  Lord 
on  high  is  mightier  than  the  voice  of  many  waters."  "And 
there  shall  be  upon  every  high  mountain  and  upon  every 
high  hill,  rivers  and  streams  of  water." 

But  what  words  shall  describe  the  beauty  of  one  of  the 
waterfalls  as  we  see  it  plunging  from  the  brow  of  a  cliff 
nearly  three  thousand  feet  high,  and  clearing  fifteen  hun 
dred  feet  in  one  leap  ?  It  is  comparatively  narrow  at  the 
top  of  the  precipice  ;  but  it  widens  as  it  descends,  and 
curves  a  little  as  it  widens,  so  that  it  shapes  itself  before  it 
reaches  its  first  bowl  of  granite  into  the  charming  figure 
of  the  comet  that  glowed  on  our  sky  two  years  ago.  .  But, 
more  beautiful  than  the  comet,  you  can  see  the  substance 
of  this  watery  loveliness  ever  renew  itself,  and  ever  pour 
itself  away.  And  all  over  its-  white  and  swaying  mistiness, 
which  now  and  then  swings  along  the  mountain  side,  at  the 
persuasion  of  the  wind,  like  a  pendulum  of  lace,  and  now 
and  then  is  whirled  round  and  round  by  some  eddying 
breeze,  as  though  the  gust  meant  to  see  if  it  could  wring  it 
dry  ; — all  over  its  surface,  as  it  falls,  are  shooting  rockets 


454  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

of  water,  which,  spend  themselves  by  the  time  they  half 
reach  the  "bottom,  and  then  re-form  for  the  remaining  descent 
— thus  fascinating  the  gazer  so  that  he  could  lie  for  hours 
never  tired,  but  ever  hungry  for  more  of  the  exquisite 
witchery  of  liquid  motion  and  grace.  It  is  as  the  Prophet 
said  :  "  The  mountains  and  the  hills  shall  break  forth  before 
you  into  singing,  and  all  the  trees  of  the  field  shall  clap  their 
hands." 

And  when,  in  the  afternoon,  we  follow  to  the  very  base 
of  one  of  these  cataracts,  and  stand  amid  the  spray  that  is 
smitten  into  rainbows,  which  dazzle  the  senses  as  if  the 
most  startling  wonders  of  fairy  landscape  had  been  realized 
around  us,  it  is  no  secular  language  or  verse  that  will  utter 
the  strange  joy — the  rapture  of  sight,  of  which  the  soul  is 
conscious.  As  we  think  of  the  service  which  the  snow-fed 
streams  discharge  to  the  thirsty  lowlands,  toward  which, 
from  their  lofty  home,  they  leap  in  music,  and  as  we  re 
member  that  they  never  fail,  though  men  are  ungrateful  and 
callous  in  heart  to  the  Infinite  beneficence,  it  is  the  prophet's 
words  which  the  flaming  spray  seems  to  chant  through  its 
splendor — "How  great  is  his  goodness,  and  how  great  is 
his  beauty  !"  And  the  verse  of  the  Psalm  rises  also  to  com 
plete  the  lesson  of  the  glorious  hour:  "Out  of  Zion,  the 
perfection  of  beauty,  God  hath  shined." 

These  visible  wonders  in  the  material  world  which  we 
catch  through  the  senses,  are  intended,  I  believe,  to  arouse 
our  attention  so  that  we  shall  think  more  of  the  wonders 
that  encircle  or  curtain  us  which  the  senses  can  not  grasp. 

One  of  the  sublimest  passages  in  the  book  of  Exodus — 
marred  in  our  Bible  by  inaccurate  rendering — is  that  in 
which  Moses  begs  for  a  clearer  vision  of  the  Divine  glory 
than  his  eyes  had  yet  beheld.  "But  God  said,  thou 
canst  not  see  my  face  ;  for  there  shall  no  man  see  me  and 
live.  And  the  Lord  said,  Behold  there  is  a  place  by 
me,  and  thou  shalt  stand  upon  a  rock.  And  it  shall 
come  to  pass,  while  my  glory  passeth  by,  that  I  will 
put  thee  in  a  cleft  of  the  rock,  and  will  cover  thee  with 
my  hand  while  I  pass  by.  And  I  will  take  away  my 
hand,  and  thou  shalt  see  what  passes  after  me — the  train 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK  455 

of  my  effects  ;  but  my  face  shall  not  be  seen."  Now  God 
offers  to  lift  every  one  of  you,  by  a  little  study  and 
thought  on  your  part,  to  a  point  of  observation,  from 
which  you  can  discern  the  vast  train  of  his  effects  in  the 
physical  universe. 

How  little  we  see  of  nature  !  How  utterly  powerless  are 
our  senses  to  take  any  measure  or  impression  of  the  actual 
grandeur  of  what  we  do  see !  Think  of  being  moved 
religiously  by  looking  at  a  pinnacle  or  bluff  four  thousand 
feet  high,  and  then  think  what  the  earth  contains  which 
might  move  us  !  What  if  one  of  the  Himalayas  could  be 
cloven  from  its  topmost  tile  of  ice  to  its  torrid  base,  so  that 
we  could  look  up  a  sheer  wall  of  twenty-eight  thousand 
feet,  the  equator  at  the  bottom,  and  at  the  apex  perpetual 
polar  frost !  And  then  think  that  the  loftiest  Himalaya  is 
only  a  slight  excrescence  on  the  planet !  What  if  we  could 
have  a  vision,  for  a  moment,  of  the  earth's  diameter,  from  a 
point  where  we  could  look  each  way  along  all  its  strata  and 
its  core  of  fire,  in  lines  each  four  thousand  miles  in  their 
stretch  ?  And  then,  remember,  that  this  is  nothing— this  is 
not  a  unit-inch  toward  measuring  the  diameter  of  the 
earth's  orbit,  and  that  earth  and  orbit  both  are  invisible 
and  undreamed  of  from  the  Pole  Star  or  Sirius,  which  is 
the  apex  of  a  reach  of  space  that  we  can  write  in  figures, 
but  which  we  could  not  have  counted  off  yet,  if  we  had 
begun  six  thousand  years  ago,  and  given  each  second  to  a 
mile  !  Or  what  if  we  could  turn  from  delight  at  seeing  a 
waterfall  of  fifteen  hundred  feet,  which  looks  like  the  tail 
of  a  comet,  and  could  get  a  sensuous  impression  of  the 
actual  trail  of  that  light  upon  the  sky,  a  cataract  of  lumin 
ous  spray,  steady  and  true,  a  hundred  and  twenty  millions 
of  miles  in  extent, — more  than  the  distance  between  us  and 
the  sun  \  And  yet  this  is  but  one  spot  upon  the  dark 
immensity ! 

God  is  creating  and  sustaining  these  splendors  every 
instant.  They  are  all  present  to  his  vision  incessantly,  and 
are  embraced  in  his  perpetual  providence.  "He  telleth 
the  number  of  the  stars:  He  calleth  them  all  by  their 


456  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

"  Oh,  what  magnificence  must  glow 
Great  God,  about  thy  throne  ! 
So  brilliant  here  these  drops  of  light — 
There  the  full  ocean  rolls — how  bright !" 

Perhaps  the  spirits  of  higher  worlds  are  endowed  to  see 
and  appreciate  these  larger  proportioned  marvels.  Per 
haps  our  senses  here  are  prepared  to  fit  our  souls  to  take  a 
wider  out-look  over  the  Creator' s  glories  when  we  drop  the 
robe  of  flesh.  That  is,  if  we  do  not  abuse  our  privilege 
here,  and  come  under  the  dominion  of  evil.  And  that  may 
be  one  of  the  heaviest  penalties  of  evil  when  you  drop  the 
flesh,  and  of  unfaithfulness  to  high  thoughts  and  studies 
here — incapacity  to  appreciate  and  adore  the  revelations  of 
the  Infinite  Mind  in  the  scale  and  splendors  of  the  universe. 
Ought  you  not,  I  ask  you,  in  a  world  which  the  Creator  so 
adorns,  and  so  surrounds  with  wonder,  to  try  to  ennoble 
your  life,  and  prepare  for  the  mysterious  future  of  your 
being,  by  thinking  more  of  the  scene  that  embosoms  you, 
and  the  mysteries  so  solemn  and  so  glorious,  amid  which 
you  dwell  ?  Do  you  live  in  such  a  world  as  you  know  this 
is,  without  reverence,  without  awe,  without  pulsations  of 
worship,  without  prayer,  without  devout  gladness,  without 
God? 

The  great  Hebrew  poet  said:  "From  the  end  of  the 
earth  will  I  cry  unto  thee,  when  my  heart  is  overwhelmed  : 
lead  me  to  the  rock  that  is  higher  than  I."  Here  is  the 
point  where  our  too  rambling  meditation  must  rest,  and 
find  its  practical  impressiveness  and  force.  To  an  Eastern 
soul,  full  of  piety  and  aspiration,  a  great  rock  suggested 
God  and  the  soul's  rest  in  God.  In  the  hot  East,  during 
the  parching  summer,  when  vegetation  shriveled,  a  rock 
on  the  plains,  especially  on  the  desert,  gave  shadow  and 
coolness.  It  was  the  traveler's  only  shelter  from  the  fierce, 
unclouded  sun.  We  found  in  the  Yosemite  valley  that  it 
was  delightful  in  the  hot  July  afternoon,  when  the  mighty 
ramparts  of  the  meadows  barred  the  sun's  rays,  and  en 
abled  us  to  ride  or  walk  in  the  shade.  Then  I  thought  of 
the  verse  I  have  taken  for  the  text,  and  of  those  words  of 
Isaiah,  "The  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land." 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  457 

And  then  I  thought  of  how  desolate  human  life  is — your 
life,  my  friend,  whatever  earthly  good  you  may  possess — 
if  you  have  no  grand  religious  scenery  in  the  s^ul — if  God 
is  not  a  rock  of  defense  and  shadow  to  you  amid  the  perils 
and  trials  of  this  world.  So  many  of  us  there  are  who  have 
no  majestic  landscapes  for  the  lieart — no  grandeurs  in  the 
inner  life  !  We  live  on  the  flats.  We  live  in  a  moral  country, 
which  is  dry,  droughty,  barren.  We  look  up  to  no  heights 
whence  shadow  falls  and  streams  flow  singing.  We  have 
no  great  hopes.  We  have  no  sense  of  Infinite  guard  and 
care.  We  have  no  sacred  and  cleansing  fears.  We  have 
no  consciousness  of  Divine,  All-enfolding  Love.  We  may 
make  an  outward  visit  to  the  Sierras,  but  there  are  no 
Yosemites  in  the  soul. 

Is  your  life  described  thus?  If  you  have  no  religious 
joys  or  aspirations — no  confidence  in  times  when  truth  is 
in  peril,  that  God  lives  to  watch  and  protect  it ;  no  sweet 
hopes  in  your  adversity  born  of  the  feeling  that  God  is  still 
near  you  ;  no  disposition  to  trust  one  infinitely  great  and 
good,  whose  love  is  reflected  in  the  heart  of  Christ,  when 
your  sweetest  blessings  are  snatched  away  by  death  ;  no 
Sacred  Presence  over-shadowing  you,  to  whom  it  is  a  relief 
to  pray  ;  your  life  is  described  thus,  and  it  is  a  poor, 
pinched,  meager,  unfurnished,  joyless  existence  you  are 
leading.  You  are  away  from  truth,  from  Christ,  from 
your  Father.  I  beseech  you — not  I,  but  the  subject,  the 
Bible,  the  Holy  Spirit,  your  own  soul — beseeches  you  to 
seek  a  nobler  life,  to  find  God  as  a  Rock  in  your  landscape 
by  his  power,  a  stream  in  your  soul  by  his  grace.  You 
can  find  him  thus.  More  easily  than  you  can  go  to  Yose- 
mite,  you  can  go  to  God.  You  can  live  nobly  without  see 
ing  the  crowning  wonder  of  this  State  ;  but  you  can  not 
live  without  God  as  your  fortress  and  defense  and  strong 
tower.  And  if  you  fail  to  seek  him  in  your  days  of 
strength  and  opportunity,  the  season  will  surely  come, 
when,  from  the  end  of  the  earth,  while  your  heart  is  over 
whelmed,  you  will  cry,  "Lead  me  to  the  rock  that  is 
higher  than  I." 


458  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


IRRIGATING    CANALS    AT   THE    OLD    MISSIONS. 


URING  the  Mission  epoch,  from  1770  to  1833, 
a  vast  amount  of  valuable  labor  was  expended 
by  the  Padres  in  the  formation  of  irrigating 
canals,  or  zany  as,  and  the  constructing  of  expen 
sive  reservoirs  and  aqueducts,  which  last  were 
"built  of  stone  and  cement,  as  well  as  of  brick.  These  exten 
sive  operations  were  carried  on  by  the  aid  of  Indians  near  by, 
and  they  abound  in  every  .Mission  district  in  South  Coast 
California.  With  the  outlay  of  a  few  thousand  dollars  in 
the  vicinity  of  each  Mission,  they  could  be  made  available 
for  agricultural  purposes  next  year.  The  following  account 
of  their  status  in  Santa  Barbara,  from  A.  Jansen,  the  County 
Assessor,  an  old  resident  since  1833,  and  well  acquainted 
with  these  matters,  will  show  how  the  four  Mission  districts 
of  that  county  stand  in  1866  ;  Zanja  of  Kamules  and  Pirru, 
five  miles  long ;  Zanja  of  San  Cajetane,  six  miles  long  ; 
Zanja  of  Santa  Paulo,  five  miles  long.  These  are  in  the 
extensive  valley  of  Saticoy  or  Santa  Clara  River,  which  is 
some  eight  miles  below  Buenaventura  Mission,  and  formerly 
pertained  to  that  establishment.  In  the  valley  or  Great 
Canada  which  opens  to  the  sea  at  Buenaventura  Mission, 
there  was  the  Zanja  Santa  Gertrude,  of  six  miles  ;  the  Zanja 
Sari  Martin,  of  four  miles  ;  the  Zanja  of  San  Miguel,  of  eight 
miles ;  another  opposite  the  last,  of  five  miles ;  and  in 
another  part  of  the  Canada,  one  of  2, 000  yards.  To  these  were 
attached  aqueducts  and  reservoirs  built  of  lime  and  stone, 
which  would  now  cost  not  less  than  $40,000  ;  and  it  is  as 
serted  by  mechanics  that  they  could  be  again  set  in  operation 
for  the  sum  of  $2,000. 

The  works  to  supply  the  Mission  and  the  lands  near  the 
town  formerly  cultivated  by  the  Indians,  were  of  greater 
extent  than  any  other  establishment  in  the  south,  except 
San  Gabriel  and  San  Luis  Rey.  There  are  three  immense 
reservoirs  two  or  three  miles  above  the  Mission,  which  are 
capable  of  holding  millions  of  gallons  of  water,  besides 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP  BOOK.  459 

several  smaller  ones,  all  of  which  are  connected  with  the 
gardens  of  the  Mission  by  zanjas  of  stone.  All  these  works 
are  substantially  built  of  cement,  brick,  and  rock,  and  at 
present  would  probably  cost  $100,000  to  construct.  They 
could  all  be  made  efficient  at  an  expense  of  some  $4,000,  and 
would  then  be  sufficient  to  supply  the  whole  population  of 
San  Barbara  town,  in  house  and  field.  During  the  rebuild 
ing  of  the  church  of  the  parish  in  the  summer  of  1866,  the 
zanjas  of  the  Mission  were  slightly  repaired,  and  the  water 
brought  down  for  half  a  mile  to  near  the  court-house,  for 
the  making  of  adobes,  which  shows  they  are  easily  repaired 
for  more  important  labors.  These  improvements  could  be 
easily  leased  from  the  Mission  for  a  term  of  years  at  an 
annual  rental  of  a  few  hundred  dollars.  The  Mission  Indians 
also  dug  some  12  or  15  miles  of  irrigating  ditches  on  and 
near  the  Goleta  Ranch,  before  1830,  which  is  nine  miles  off 
The  aqueducts  of  the  Mission  also  irrigated  several  hundred 
acres  of  land  in  its  immediate  vicinity. 

The  works  at  the  Mission  of  Santa  Inez  are  quite  exten 
sive,  and  consist  of  aqueducts,  reservoirs,  and  cisterns,  well 
built  of  brick,  &c.,  standing — the  present  cost  of  which 
would  exceed  $50,000.  They  supplied  from  mountain 
streams  about  thirty  miles  of  zanjas,  which  enabled  the  old 
priests  to  fully  supply  all  the  wheat,  corn,  barley,  beans, 
fruits,  and  other  crops  necessary  for  the  consumption  of  the 
Mission  population.  An  American  rancher  in  the  vicinity 
assures  us  that  $1,000  would  put  these  works  in  good  repair, 
as  there  is  an  abundance  of  water  near  by.  This  Mission 
had  several  fine  pieces  of  valley  land  near  by,  which, 
though  now  only  used  for  pasture,  could  be  made  with  the 
old  canals  to  raise  large  crops.  The  padres  even  established 
a  flour-mill  near  the  Mission,  with  a  canal  from  the  waters 
of  the  Arroyo  Sankacotta,  about  1825,  and  supplied  them 
selves  for  several  years  independent  of  the  Mission. 

The  neighboring  Mission  of  La  Purisima,  some  twenty 
miles  off,  had  three  large  reservoirs  and  cisterns  of  mason 
work,  besides  other  improvements  of  like  character,  which 
enabled  the  Padres  to  cultivate  large  portions  of  land  of  no 
use  without  such  appliances,  except  for  pasture.  These 


460  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

works  are  still  in  tolerable  condition,  and  a  few  hundred 
dollars  spent  in  repairs  would  utilize  them  all.  All  these 
irrigating  canals  of  the  Missions  were  trenches  dug  in  the 
soil,  something  after  the  manner  of  our  present  mining 
ditches  ;  and  from  the  account  of  the  Assessor,  they  amount 
ed  to  about  100  miles  in  linear  length  in  the  county,  which 
includes  about  thirty  miles  made  on  the  ranches  since  1830. 
Want  of  space  prevents  a  further  detail  of  the  valuable 
statistics  on  this  important  matter  in  the  office  of  the 
Assessor. 

Taking  the  above  four  Mission  districts  at  100  miles  of 
the  ante  1833  irrigating  ditches,  we  should  have,  allowing 
for  all  errors,  about  700  lineal  miles  of  similar  improvements 
in  the  remaining  nine  Missions  between  San  Juan  North 
and  San  Diego.  If  these  works  were  again  put  in  repair, 
with  American  improvements,  they  could  again  be  made  to 
defy  the  seasons  and  benefit  three  or  four  millions  of  acres 
of  land,  and  make  the  southern  counties  the  garden  of 
North  America.  The  fourteen  miles  zanja  made  by  Ban 
ning  from  Los  Angeles  to  San  Pedro  in  1864,  has  had  a 
most  beneficial  influence  on  the  prospects  of  that  county. 
—Cor.  S.  F.  Bulletin,  Oct.  17,  1866. 


AN    OLD    EXPLORER. 

:ENRY  R.  SCHOOLCRAFT,  the  discoverer  of 
the  source  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  author  of 
a  number  of  standard  works  on  the  Indianology 
of  America,  died  in  Washington,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  71  years.  Mingling  with  the  Western 
tribes  to  some  extent  during  a  period  of  thirty  years,  his 
life  was  a  romance  which,  could  it  but  be  written,  would 
be  scarcely  less  interesting  than  the  numerous  works  he  has 
left  behind  him  as  lasting  monuments  of  his  industry  and 
love  of  adventure.  He  was  born  in  Albany,  N.  Y.,  in 
1793,  and  was  educated  at  Middlebury  College.  His  father 
was  the  superintendent  of  a  glass  factory  at  Cheshire,  Mass., 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  461 

and  be  applied  himself  to  the  art  of  glass-making,  and  in 
1816  commenced  the  publication  of  a  work  on  "  Vitreology," 
which  was  never  completed.  The  following  year  he  paid  a 
visit  to  the  West,  and  published  UA  View  of  the  Lead 
Mines  of  Missouri,"  and  a  record  of  his  travels,  under  the 
title  of  "Scenes  and  Adventures  in  the  semi- Alpine  Regions 
of  the  Ozark  Mountains  of  Missouri  and  Arkansas."  In 
1820  he  was  appointed  geologist  to  an  expedition  under 
General  Cass  to  the  copper  region  of  Lake  Superior  and  the 
upper  Mississippi,  of  which  he  published  an  account  in 
1821.  In  the  course  of  the  same  year  he  was  appointed 
Secretary  of  the  Indian  Commission  at  Chicago,  and  having 
traveled  through  Illinois  and  along  the  Wabash  and  Miami 
rivers,  published  a  book  of  "Travels  in  the  Central 
Portions  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  "  In  1822,  having  re 
ceived  the  appointment  of  Indian  Agent  on  the  Northwestern 
frontier,  he  took  up  his  residence  at  Sault  St.  Marie,  near 
Lake  Superior,  and  afterward  at  Macherian,  on  Lake  Huron, 
and  married  the  grand-daughter  of  a  celebrated  Indian 
chief,  Miss  Johnston,  a  lady  of  remarkable  beauty  and 
worth,  who  had  been  educated  in  Europe,  and  no  less  dis 
tinguished  for  her  intelligence  and  culture  than  her  personal 
attractions.  From  that  time  Mr.  Schoolcraft  became  a  dili 
gent  and  successful  student  of  Indian  ethnology,  poetry,  and 
history.  From  1828  to  1832  he  was  a  member  of  the  Legis 
lature  of  Michigan,  then  a  territory  ;  in  the  former  year  he 
founded  the  Michigan  Historical  Society,  and  in  1831  the 
Algic  Society  at  Detroit ;  two  of  his  lectures  before  which, 
on  the  grammatic  construction  of  the  Indian  languages, 
were  translated  by  Mr.  Duponcian  into  French,  and  received 
a  gold  medal  from  the  Institute.  At  this  period  of  his  life 
he  published  several  poems,  lectures,  and  reports  on  Indian 
subjects,  and  a  grammar  of  the  Algonquin  language.  In 
1832,  he  was  appointed  to  conduct  a  second  Government 
expedition,  and  was  the  first  to  discover  the  source  of  the 
Mississippi,  of  which  he  published  an  account  in  1834. 
Two  years  after,  having  been  commissioned  to  treat  with 
tribes  on  the  Upper  Lakes,  he  procured  from  them  the 
cession  of  3  6, 000, 000  acres  of  land  to  the  United  States. 


462  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

After  acting  for  several  years  as  Superintendent  of  Indian 
Affairs,  and  Chief  Disbursing  Agent  for  the  Northern  Depart 
ment,  he  removed  to  New  York  in  1841,  visited  Europe  in 
1842,  and  in  1845  was  appointed  by  the  State  Legislature  to 
make  a  census  of  the  Six  Nations,  which  was  published  in 
184S,  under  the  title  of  "Notes  on  the  Iroquois."  In  1847, 
under  an  appointment  by  the  United  States  Secretary  of  War, 
he  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  a  work  on  the  Indians,  of 
which  six  quarto  volumes  have  appeared,  entitled  "His 
torical  and  Statistical  Information  respecting  the  History, 
Condition,  arid  Prospects  of  the  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United 
States."  In  addition  to  the  publication  already  named, 
Mr.  Schoolcraft  was  the  author  of  a  great  variety  of  works 
on  the  Indians,  the  most  important  of  which  was  his  "Algic 
Researches."  In  1847  he  was  married  again  to  a  lady  of 
South  Carolina,  since  which  time  he  resided  in  the  city  of 
Washington.  Mr.  Schoolcraft  was  an  indefatigable  explorer 
of  American  antiquities,  in  which  branch  of  investigation  he 
was  an  original  pioneer,  and  his  voluminous  writings  will 
long  be  consulted  as  leading  authorities  on  whatever  pertains 
to  Indian  character  and  manners. —  Virginia  (Nevada)  Ter 
ritorial  Enterprise. 


THE  GREAT  CANAL  OF  THE  GANGES. 


COMMENCING  near  Harswar,  where  the  River 
Ganges  debouches  from  the  Himalayan  Moun 
tains,  an  arm  of  that  stream  is  occupied  as 
a  feeder,  and  is  crossed  by  a  masonry  dam, 
having  380  feet  of  sluice  openings,  and  flank 
overfalls  of  such  length  as  to  give  517  feet  of  clear 
passage  for  floods  in  the  river.  The  head  works  of  the 
canal  consist  of  a  regulation  bridge,  of  200  feet  water  way, 
in  ten  openings  of  20  feet  each,  and  connected  with  the 
dam  by  a  long  line  of  masonry  revetment.  In  the  first 
25  miles  the  canal  meets  with  numerous  difficulties,  in 
crossing  streams  which  drain  the  sub-Himalayas.  Among 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  463 

these  are  three  rivers  of  considerable  size — two  of  which, 
with  subordinate  streams,  are  admitted  in  the  canal  (a  pro 
ceeding  which  seems  to  me  to  be  of  questionable  propriety 
in  a  work  of  such  magnitude,  extent,  and  cost).  The  canal, 
however,  is  provided  with  dams,  sluices,  and  overfalls  for 
the  escape  of  surplus  waters,  and  regulating  bridges  to 
prevent  damage  to  the  canal  by  the  floods  of  these  rivers. 
Passing  through  a  high  ridge  of  land  for  two  miles,  with  a 
maximum  cut  of  37  feet,  overcoming  the  fall  in  the  country 
and  canal  by  a  costly  dam  of  masonry,  and  providing  for 
navigation  by  an  independent  canal  one  mile  in  length,  and 
its  necessary  locks,  it  crosses  the  valley  of  a  river  nearly 
two  and  a  quarter  miles  in  width,  upon  an  embankment 
averaging  16|  feet  in  height  at  the  bottom  of  the  canal,  with 
base  of  350  feet,  and  top  (which  is  "bottom  of  the  canal") 
272  feet  wide.  Upon  this  platform  is  built  a  canal  to  carry 
a  depth  of  ten  feet  of  water,  and  to  pass  6,750  cubic  feet  of 
water  per  second.  The  canal  has  a  uniform  width  on  bot 
tom  of  140  feet,  and  water  surface  170  feet  wide,  for  the 
first  50  miles,  with  banks  12  feet  high,  30  feet  wide  on  top, 
and  slopes  generally  one  and  one-half  base  to  one  foot  rise. 
Over  the  great  valley  and  embankment  just  described,  the 
interior  slopes  are  protected  by  retaining  walls  of  masonry. 
This  embankment  is  connected  at  one  end  with  an  aqueduct 
of  masonry  which  is,  in  itself,  one  of  the  greatest  works  of 
our  day.  It  is  920  feet  long,  192  feet  wide,  has  15  arches  of 
50  feet  span,  five  feet  depth,  and  eight  feet  rise.  The  piers, 
which  are  ten  feet  thick  at  springing  line,  and  twelve  and  a 
half  feet  high  above  the  river,  rest  upon  masonry  founda 
tions  20  feet  thick,  sunk  20  feet  into  the  bed  of  the  river, 
and  completely  secured.  The  side  walls  are  each  eight  feet 
thick  and  twelve  feet  high.  The  water-way  is  divided  into 
two  channels,  each  85  feet  wideband  separated  by  a  ma 
sonry  wall  six  feet  thick.  The  whole  rises  to  the  height  of 
37£  feet  above  the  river.  A  continuation  of  earth  embank 
ment  connects  the  whole  with  high  grounds.  This  aqueduct 
and  high  embanked  canal,  lined  throughout  with  masonry, 
together  are  nearly  three  miles  in  length,  and  the  cost  of 
their  construction  was  very  great.  After  passing  this  valley 


464  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  canal  is  upon  ground  favorable  to  economical  construc 
tion.  At  50  miles  from  the  head  it  throws  out  the  first  great 
branch,  which  is  150  miles  long,  and  discharges  1,240  cubic 
feet  of  water  per  second.  The  main  stem  is  now  reduced  to 
130  feet  width  on  bottom  and  depth  of  nine  feet  water,  which 
it  carries  to  its  second  branch,  which  has  a  length  of  70 
miles  and  a  discharge  of  520  cubic  feet  per  second.  Here 
the  main  stem  is  again  reduced  to  a  width  on  bottom  of  108 
feet,  but  retains  its  depth  of  nine  feet  of  water.  The  third 
branch  is  172  miles  long,  and  has  a  discharge  of  1,336  cubic 
feet  of  water  per  second.  At  the  point  where  this  branch 
leaves  the  main  stem  the  latter  is  reduced  to  90  feet  on  bot 
tom,  with  seven  and  a  half  feet  depth  of  water.  At  the  250th 
mile  it  is  again  reduced  in  width,  being  80  feet  wide  on  bot 
tom,  and  having  seven  feet  depth  of  water.  The  fourth 
great  branch  is  intended  for  a  connecting  line,  and  for  navi 
gation  between  the  canal  and  the  River  Ganges.  Its  length 
is  43£  miles,  and  its  capacity  of  discharge  is  635  cubic  feet 
of  water  per  second.  At  its  intersection  with  the  main 
trunk  the  latter  is  reduced  to  75  feet  of  bottom  width,  with 
six  feet  depth  of  water.  At  the  terminus  of  the  canal,  453 
miles  from  the  head,  the  width  of  bottom  is  25  feet,  and 
depth  of  water  four  feet. 

The  total  length  of  the  canal  and  its  four  main  branches 
is  898|-  miles.  Each  of  the  branches  which  I  have  named, 
as  well  as  the  main  trunk,  is  a  canal  of  navigation  as  well 
as  irrigation  ;  and  each  throws  out  great  numbers  of  subor 
dinate  branches,  which,  in  their  turn,  send  off  countless 
streams  to  distribute  the  waters.  Every  few  miles  bridges 
are  provided  for  crossing ;  and  at  all  suitable  points  the 
necessary  appliances  for  using  the  water  for  power  are  pro 
vided.  Plantations  and  orchards  of  timber  and  fruit  trees 
were  planted  along  the  works.  Every  care  has  been  taken 
to  provide  for  the  most  economical  and  effective  use  of  the 
water,  and  for  the  comfort,  health,  and  prosperity  of  the 
native  population  who  are  to  use  it. 

The  area  of  cultivable  land  which  is  within  the  reach  of 
these  routes  exceeds  11,102,000  acres,  and  contains  a  popu 
lation  of  six  and  a  half  millions  of  souls.  The  capacity  of 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  465 

the  canal  is  estimated  to  be  equal  to  the  irrigation  of  nearly 
1,500,000  acres  yearly,  as  they  irrigate  in  India.  And  as 
the  practice  there  is  generally  to  irrigate  one  year  and  rest 
in  fallow  two  y ears,  the  large  quantity  of  four  and  a  half 
millions  of  acres  may  be  prepared  for  and  be  watered  from 
the  canals  of  the  Ganges  every  three  years.  And  as  the 
practice  of  irrigating  from  wells  still  continues,  and  amounts 
to  about  one-fourth  or  one-fifth  of  the  whole,  the  quantity  so 
irrigated  will  amount  to  about  1,000,000  acres,  and  the  total 
watered  area,  within  the  reach  of  the  Ganges  canal,  about 
5,500,000  acres,  or  nearly  one-half  of  the  whole  irrigable 
district.  The  value  of  the  increased  productions  from  the 
lands  irrigated  by  the  Ganges  canal  is  estimated  already  at 
six  millions  of  dollars  annually — a  sum  nearly  equal  to  the 
total  capital  invested  in  the  canal. 

The  direct  returns  in  the  way  of  water-rents,  tolls,  &c., 
on  their  extensive  canals,  pay  the  Government  very  well 
for  the  investment.  The  indirect  benefits,  in  the  way  of 
public  lands  reclaimed,  and  revenues  increased  upon  an 
average  of  from  £30  to  £40  ($150  to  $200)  per  square  mile  per 
annum,  swell  the  returns  to  the  Government,  in  some  cases, 
as  high  as  36  per  cent,  per  annum,  with  prospects  of  in 
crease.  The  essential  benefits,  however,  accrue  to  the 
natives  who  employ  the  waters,  by  which  they  have  been 
already  saved  from  famine.  To  them  they  are  of  inestimable 
value. 

By  means  of  these  beneficent  works  of  the  British  Govern 
ment,  about  twelve  millions  of  inhabitants,  dependent  upon 
agriculture  in  India,  receive  constant  employment,  and  are 
relieved  from  the  danger  of  famine,  which  formerly  visited 
them  ;  produce,  which  can  not  be  valued  at  less  than  fifty 
millions  of  dollars  per  annum,  is  placed  beyond  the  con 
tingencies  of  season ;  and  public  revenue,  amounting  to 
about  fifteen  millions  of  dollars  yearly,  is  permanently 
protected  from  fluctuation  in  orninary  times,  and  from 
annihilation  during  extraordinary  ones. 

The  great  value  of  these  canals  to  India  may  be  illustrated 
by  the  known  effects  of  one  of  them  within  the  last  half 
century.  The  great  canals  of  the  Jumna,  in  the  revolution 
30 


466  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

which  disorganized  the  Mogul  Empire,  were  almost  de 
stroyed—nearly  obliterated.  Irrigation  from  them  had  been 
extinct  for  upward  of  seventy  years  upon  some,  and  upward 
of  a  century  upon  others,  when  the  English  undertook  their 
restoration.  Those  who  had  used  them  had  disappeared, 
and  three  or  four  generations  of  their  descendants  had  re 
sorted  to  the  use  of  water  from  wells.  When  the  canals 
were  reopened  in  1820,  their  use  was  a  novelty,  and  the 
semi-barbarous  people  were  so  slow  to  avail  themselves  of 
the  benefits  of  the  water,  that  thirteen  years  passed  off 
without  any  very  great  use  being  made  of  it.  The  season  of 
1833-34,  one  of  partial  famine,  taught  them  its  value ;  and 
that  of  1837-38,  the  great  famine  year,  extended  its  use  so 
far  that  upon  the  western  Jumna  canal  produce  to  the 
value  of  more  than  §7,000,000  was  saved  from  utter  loss,  the 
inhabitants  of  five  hundred  villages  were  saved  from  devas 
tating  famine,  and  the  returns  to  the  Government  for  that 
one  year,  about  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars,  exceeded 
by  more  than  $130,000  the  cost  of  rebuilding  the  canal. 
Upon  the  eastern  Jumna  canal  results  were  similar,  though 
the  returns  were  not  in  the  same  proportion  to  the  outlay. 
The  fostering  care  of  the  Government,  which  extended  itself 
even  to  the  Eastern  appreciation  of  the  luxury  of  shade  and 
fruit,  has  not  been  without  its  reward  upon  these  canals. 
An  expenditure  for  plantations,  of  about  $25,000,  has 
already  returned  to  it  more  than  double  that  sum,  in  the 
sale  of  timber,  and  the  value  of  the  trees  remaining  is  esti 
mated  at  fifteen  times  the  outlay. 

Although  some  of  the  amounts  aboved  stated  are  very 
large,  the  values  may  seem  very  small  when  measured  by 
California  prices.  The  California!!  should  bear  in  mind  that 
the  price  of  a  day's  labor  in  India  is  about  five  cents.  The 
great  bulk  of  its  agricultural  products — the  food  of  its  poor 
and  crowded  population — must  have  a  price,  at  home,  cor 
responding  with  that  of  its  labor. 

India  is  subject  to  great  droughts,  and  its  dense  population 
have  frequently  been  afflicted  by  famine.  It  may  be  said 
to  be  dependent  upon  irrigation,  for  which  it  has  two  seasons 
and  two  classes  of  crops.  The  season  of  rains  is  the  sum- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  467 

mer — of  dry  and  cold,  the  winter.  In  the  first,  the  chief 
crops  are  sugar,  cotton,  indigo,  &c. ;  in  the  second,  wheat, 
barley,  &c. — all  of  which  are  not  only  largely  increased, 
both  in  quantity  and  quality,  by  the  free  use  of  water,  but 
are  placed  beyond  the  danger  of  utter  loss  by  excessive 
drought. 

WILLIAM  H.  BRYAN, 
in  Sacramento  Union,  April,  1866. 


A    NIGHT    SCENE    NEAR    MOUNT    SHASTA. 

tHOSE  who  have  never  visited  Shasta  Valley, 
can  have  but  little  idea  of  the  sublimity  of 
mountain  scenery  in  California.  There  it  lies, 
remote  and  isolated,  a  little  world  of  solitary 
wonders.  This  lovely  valley,  in  which  is 
situated  the  comely  little  city  of  Yreka,  is 
about  eighty  miles  in  extent,  and  varies  from  five  to  thirty 
miles  in  width.  There  is  probably  no  spot  upon  the  round 
earth  which  contains  so  many  natural  attractions  for  the 
man  of  science,  the  artist,  the  husbandman,  the  poet,  and 
speculator,  as  this  wonderful  valley.  The  valley  itself  is  a 
vast  fertile  prairie,  dotted  at  picturesque  intervals  with 
groves  of  sturdy  pines  and  "broad  brown  oaks.'*  Here 
and  there  the  level  plain  is  relieved  by  pretty  natural 
mounds,  which  vary  in  altitude  from  twenty  to  two  hun 
dred  feet.  On  the  east,  the  valley  is  bounded  by  a  lofty 
spur  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  while  high,  high  above  all,  the 
cloud-piercing  Shasta  Butte  rears  his  snow-crowned  summit 
to  the  skies.  One  cold,  frosty  night,  in  the  winter  of  18o4, 
we  witnessed  a  phenomenon  in  Shasta  Valley,  the  like  of 
which  may  never  be  seen  again.  Our  attention  was  first 
attracted  to  the  summit  of  the  Butte,  above  which  a  cone 
of  isolated  clouds  had  gathered,  as  if  for  the  purpose  of 
piling  the  dizzy  peak  still  higher  up  in  the  heavens.  Every 
where  else  the  sky  was  perfectly  cloudless,  and  the  moon 
was  shining  in  all  her  mountain  effulgence.  Suddenly  a 


46S 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


sliot  athwart  the  heavens  from  south  to 


broad,  black  zone 
north,  and  remained  fixed  and  motionless  for  the  space  of 
full  two  hours.  This  singular  belt  was  apparently  as  black 
as  jot,  and  yet  the  stars  shone  more  brightly  in  its  center 
than  anywhere  else. 


VIEW    OF   MOUNT   SHASTA,    THIRTY   MILES   DISTANT. 

Presently  the  moon  entered  this  ebon  zone,  and  the  tran 
scendent  miracle  of  beauty  which  it  presented  surpassed, 
probably,  any  celestial  glory  which  mortal  ever  beheld. 
When  the  planet  reached  the  center  of  the  dark  belt,  it 
became  completely  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  brilliant  rings, 
each  varying  in  vividness,  but  all  containing  the  prismatic 
hues  of  the  rainbow.—  Placermlle  Index,  December,  1862. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  469 


KOTZEBUE'S  VISIT  TO  CALIFORNIA. 


OTZEBUE  arrived  from  Sitka,  in  the  San  Fran 
cisco  Bay,  on  the  2oth  of  September,  1824. 
Being  then  anchored  with  his  vessel  opposite 
the  Presidio,  he  remarks:  "The  California 
wintei  having  now  (last  week  in  September) 
fairly  set  in,  we  had  much  rain  and  frequent 
storms.  On  the  9th  of  October  the  southwest  wind  blew 
with  the  violence  of  the  West  India  tornado,  rooted  up  the 
strongest  trees,  tore  off  the  roofs  of  the  houses  and  occa 
sioned  great  devastation  in  the  cultivated  land.  One  of  our 
thickest  cables  broke,  and  if  the  second  had  given  way  we 
should  have  been  driven  on  the  rocky  shore  of  the  channel 
(the  Golden  Gate)  which  unites  the  bay  with  the  sea,  where 
a  powerful  current,  struggling  with  the  tempest,  produced 
a  frightful  surf.  Fortunately,  the  extreme  violence  of  the 
storm  lasted  only  a  few  hours,  but  in  that  short  time  it 
caused  a  destructive  inundation.  The  water  spread  so 
rapidly  over  the  lowlands  where  we  were  bivouacked,  that 
we  had  scarcely  time  to  leave  our  tents  and  astronomical 
instruments.  On  comparing  afterward  the  time  of  day  at 
St.  Petersburg  and  San  Francisco,  by  means  of  difference 
of  longitude,  it  appears  from  recorded  observations  that  the 
tremendous  inundation  which  occurred  at  St.  Petersburg 
took  place  not  only  on  the  same  day,  October  9,  but  even 
began  in  the  same  hour  as  that  we  witnessed  in  California. 
In  the  Sandwich  Islands  the  storm  raged  with  similar  fury 
at  the  same  time  as  it  did  also  farther  west,  at  the  Philippine 
Islands,  where  it  was  accompanied  by  an  earthquake.  In 
the  Bay  of  Manila  the  storm  was  so  violent  that  a  French 
corvette,  under  Captain  Bougainville,  son  of  the  celebrated 
navigator,  was  entirely  dismasted — a  fact  related  to  us  at 
the  Islands,  and  afterward  verified  by  us  at  Manila.  The 
hurricane,  therefore,  raged  at  the  same  time  over  the  greatest 
part  of  the  northern  hemisphere.  The  causes  which  pro 
duced  it  may  have  possibly  originated  beyond  our  atmos- 


470  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

phere."  Fearing  a  return  of  similar  storms,  Kotzebue  ob 
serves  :  "We  took  advantage  of  fine  weather  on  the  follow 
ing  day  to  sail  farther  eastward  into  a  little  bay,  and  which 
is  a  perfectly  safe  anchorage  at  all  seasons,  surrounded  by 
a  romantic  landscape,  where  Vancouver  formerly  lay  (1792), 
called  by  the  Spaniards  Yerba  Buena,  after  a  sweet  smell 
ing  herb  common  there." 

Kotzebue  was  anchored  in  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  from 
the  2oth  of  September  to  the  25th  of  November,  at  which 
date  he  took  his  departure  for  the  Sandwich  Islands. 
During  his  stay  he  made  a  journey  in  the  first  week  of 
October  to  the  Russian  settlement  of  Ross,  overland,  by 
the  way  of  San  Rafael,  and  represents  the  intervening 
country  as  presenting  a  highly  verdant  appearance,  and 
everywhere  covered  with  a  luxuriant  growth  of  green  grass. 
He  returned  by  the  9th  of  October,  and  remarks  that  lie 
experienced  the  finest  weather  after  the  great  storm  until 
the  18th  of  November.  At  this  last  date  he  started  on  an 
expedition  up  the  bay,  and  appears  to  have  reached,  by  the 
twenty-first,  a  point  near  or  in  the  Sacramento  River,  which 
he  locates  in  latitude  38  deg.  27  min.,  longitude  122  deg. 
10  min.,  of  Greenwich.  From  the  latest  American  authori 
ties  used  in  "Bancroft's  Hand-Book  for  1864,"  Sacramento 
city  is  placed  in  latitude  38  deg.,  34  min.,  1  sec.,  longitude 
121  deg.,  27  min.,  44  sec.  This  is  only  a  difference,  on  the 
parallel,  of  say  seven  miles  (7  min.,  12  sec.),  from  Suiter's 
old  embarcadero,  and  probably  present  improved  instru 
ments  would  have  made  his  exact  position  near  the  levee 
of  the  1866  City  of  the  Plains.  So  that  the  Russian  navi 
gator,  in  1824,  was  the  first  person  who  scientifically  located 
any  point  of  the  Great  Valley  of  California,  between  Shasta 
and  the  Tejon.  In  his  trip  he  mentions  the  abundance  of 
all  kinds  of  four  footed  and  feathered  game,  of  which,  from 
their  tameness,  his  party  slaughtered  a  large  number,  and 
returned  in  their  boats  to  the  ship  on  the  twenty-third,  after 
a  five  days  trip,  loaded  with  deer,  elk,  ducks,  geese,  &c. 

Near  the  place  where  he  locates  the  Pescadores  (salmon 
fisheries?)  he  says  the  immense  plains  were  carpeted  with 
the  finest  verdure  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  and  the  great 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  471 

range  "  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  forty  miles  off,"  is  covered 
from  north  to  south  "with  ice  and  snow  half-way  down  "  to 
the  lower  hills.  The  verdancy  and  luxuriance  of  the  pas 
tures  is  also  noticed  in  a  previous  trip  he  made  to  Santa 
Clara  Mission  as  early  as  the  28th  of  September,  a  few  days 
after  his  arrival  from  Sitka,  so  that  this  season  is  proved  to 
have  been  one  of  the  most  forward  on  record,  Kotzebue's 
accounts  being  the  most  valuable,  as  those  of  the  country 
are  handed  down  by  tradition  or  now  obtainable  from 
memory  of  the  ancient  natives  and  the  few  first  foreign 
settlers  ante  1826. 

On  the  25th  of  November,  he  remarks,  we  towed  out  of 
the  bay  with  a  northwest  wind,  which  here  "regularly 
brings  fine  weather."  This  last,  however,  is  not  the  case 
since  1849.  The  sea  was  still  so  much  agitated  by  the  recent 
southwest  storms  that  it  rolled  such  immense  billows  into 
the  channel,  which  unites  with  the  bay  (the  Golden  Gate), 
as  to  threaten  his  ship,  the  Enterprise,  with  destruction  by 
being  dashed  against  those  walls  of  sea- water  by  the  force 
of  the  current  from  the  channel — the  vessel  refusing  to  obey 
her  helm.  It  is  advisable,  he  thoughtfully  notes,  not  to 
attempt  sailing  out  in  these  seasons  until  the  channel  is 
tranquil,  after  blowing  several  days  from  the  northwest — a 
precaution  which  we  well  know  the  value  of  since  1850. — 
Correspondent  S.  F.  Bulletin. 


LOSS    OF    LIFE    ON    THE    STEAMER    "  SAN    FRANCISCO." 

THE  steamer  San  Francisco,  bound  for  this  port,  with 
United  States  troops  on  board,  foundered  at  sea  January 
5th,  1854.  The  gale  continued  with  more  or  less  violence 
until  the  31st  of  December,  during  which  time  two  hundred 
and  forty  of  the  seven  hundred  human  beings  on  board 
were  swept  from  its  decks  and  perished  in  the  sea  ;  among 
them,  as  persons  of  rank,  were  Colonel  John  M.  Washing 
ton,  Major  Geo.  Taylor,  Captain  H.  B.  Field,  and  Lieuten 
ant  R.  II.  Smith.  The  rest  were  rescued  by  the  ship  Three 
Bells,  the  bark  Kilby,  and  the  Antarctic.— S.  F.  Mirror, 
July  10,  1860. 


472  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


HOW    THE    TIN    MINES    WERE    DISCOVERED. 


EAR  the  close  of  the  year  1857,  an  old  Indian 
chief,  of  the  Cahuilla  tribe,  residing  with  Mr. 
Sexton,  of  San  Gabriel,  became  sick,  and  felt 
himself  dying.  There  was  a  secret  on  his  mind 
which  he  wished  to  reveal  to  the  man  who  had 
showed  him  so  much  kindness ;  he  feared  to  do  so,  however, 
as  it  had  been  trusted  to  his  faithful  guardianship,  and  yet 
he  felt  it  would  eventually  become  known  through  the  pry 
ing  curiosity  of  the  white  man,  who  was  penetrating  every 
portion  of  the  country,  and  from  whom  no  secret  could  be 
much  longer  kept.  Arguing  thus  with  himself,  and  being 
anxious  to  benefit  his  friend  by  imparting  to  him  the  secret, 
he  consulted  his  "medicine  man,"  who  was  in  attendance 
on  him,  but  whose  simples  were  now  unavailing  ;  meeting 
at  first  with  opposition  from  this  counselor,  he  had  to  over 
come  his  scruples,  but  finally  obtained  his  consent  to  com 
ply  with  his  orders,  when  he  should  pass  away  to  the  land 
of  spirits.  Having  thus  conciliated  his  counselor,  he  called 
to  his  side  his  generous  friend  Sexton,  and  informed  him 
that  as  he  was  about  to  die,  he  wished  to  communicate  to 
him  a  secret  which  would  be  the  means  of  making  him  a 
rich  man.  He  then  informed  him  that  he  had  given  orders 
to  his  medicine  man  to  conduct  Sexton  to  the  place  where 
they  obtained  their  medicine,  saying  that  though  only  used 
by  them  as  a  medicine,  he  knew  that  the  rock  contained 
precious  metal,  and  that  he  wished  him  to  have  the  benefit 
of  the  knowledge  of  its  existence,  satisfied  that  the  Ameri 
cans  would  soon  find  out  what  it  was,  and  its  value.  He 
was  the  last  of  his  name  and  family,  and  there  were  none 
to  whom  his  obligation  bound  him  to  transmit  his  long- 
cherished  secret. 

Accordingly,  after  the  death  of  the  old  chief,  Mr.  Sexton, 
taking  with  him  Mr.  F.  M.  Slaughter,  set  out,  with  his 
Indian  guide,  to  find  the  place  where  the  medicine  was  ob- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  473 

tained.  The  Indian  made  his  way  to  Temescal,  then  bore 
off  to  the  mountains,  and  finally  came  to  the  base  of  Cajalco 
Hill.  On  reaching  this  place,  the  Indian  seemed  to  be  ter 
ribly  exercised.  Standing  apart  from  his  companions,  he 
commenced  uttering  some  strange  sounds ;  shortly,  he  broke 
out  into  a  sort  of  chant  or  lamentation  ;  then  he  became 
agitated,  his  cries  became  louder  and  loader,  his  body  be 
came  distorted,  and,  swaying  to  and  fro,  he  fell  to  the  earth. 
This  he  repeated.  He  then  spread  out  his  hands  toward  the 
east,  then  toward  the  west,  and,  in  a  moment,  started  off  in 
a  run  up  the  hill  in  a  straight  line  to  a  hole  which  was  dug 
in  the  earth.  Arriving  at  this,  he  went  through  pretty  much 
the  same  gyrations  and  contortions ;  then  he  beckoned  to 
the  white  men  to  come  up — pointing  to  the  hole  as  the 
medicine-hole.  On  being  opened,  it  was  found  to  be  a 
mineral  vein,  and  on  being  tested  it  proved  to  be  tin.  That 
lead  is  called  "The  Medicine  Lead,"  on  Cajalco  Hill ;  and 
that  is  the  manner  in  which  a  knowledge  of  its  existence 
was  brought  to  light.  The  " medicine''  obtained  from  the 
rock  was  the  oxide  of  copper. — Los  Angeles  Star,  August, 
1860. 


THE    CITY    BY    THE    GOLDEN    GATE. 

THE  following  poem,  written  by  Ina  D.  Coolbrith,  was 
read  in  San  Francisco  on  the  occasion  of  the  celebration  of 
the  eighteenth  anniversary  of  the  admission  of  California 
into  the  Union,  September  9,  1868  : — 

Little  the  goodly  Fathers, 

Building  their  Missions  rude, 
By  the  lone,  untraversed.  waters, 

In  the  Western  solitude, 

Dreamed  of  the  wonderful  city 

That  looks  on  the  stately  bay, 
Where  the  bannered  ships  of  the  nations 

Float  in  their  pride  to-day ; 


474 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

Dreamed  of  the  beautiful  city, 
Proud  on  her  tawny  height, 

And  strange  as  a  flower  up-springing 
To  bloom  in  a  single  night ; 

For  lo  !  but  a  moment  lifting 
The  veil  of  the  years  away, 

We  look  on  a  well  known  picture, 
That  seems  but  as  yesterday. 


SOUTH  VIEW  OF  FORT  POINT  AND  THE  GOLDEN  GATE. 

The  mist  rolls  in  at  the  Gateway, 
Where  never  a  fortress  stands, 

O'er  the  blossoms  of  Saucelito 
And  Yerba  Buena's  sands, 

Swathing  the  shores  where  only 
The  sea-birds  come  and  pass, 

And  drifts  with  the  drifting  waters 
By  desolate  Alcatraz. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  475 

We  hear  when  night  drops  downward, 

And  the  bay  throbs  under  the  stars, 
The  ocean-voices  blending 

With  ripple  of  soft  guitars, 

With  chiming  bells  of  the  Mission, 

With  passionate  minors  sung, 
Or  a  quaint  Castilian  ballad 

Trilled  in  the  Spanish  tongue. 

Fair  from  thy  hills,  O  city, 

Look  on  the  beautiful  bay ! 
Prouder  far  is  the  vision 

Greeting  our  eyes  to-day  ; 

Better  the  thronged  waters 

And  the  busy  streets  astir, 
Purple  and  silken  raiment, 

Balsam  and  balm  and  myrrh — 

Gems  of  the  farther  Indies, 

Gold  of  thy  own  rich  mine, 
And  the  pride  and  boast  of  the  peoples, 

O  beautiful  Queen,  are  thine ! 

Praise  to  the  goodly  Fathers 

With  banners  of  faith  unfurled  ! 
Praise  to  the  sturdy  heroes 

Who  have  won  thee  to  the  world  ! 

That  was  a  day  to  dream  of — 

That  was  a  life  we  led; 
Bleeding  the  veins  of  the  mountains, 

Draining  the  torrent's  bed ; 

Searching  the  dusky  canon, 

Tracking  the  pathless  glen — 
The  shot,  the  knife,  and  the  struggle 

With  savage  beasts  and  men  ! 


476  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

But  blest  in  the  rest  that  follows, 
Is  thought  of  a  labor  past ; 

Blessed  in  the  homes  we  have  builded, 
The  peace  and  the  rest  at  last. 

And  blessed,  indeed,  the  winter 
That  nurses  a  smiling  spring, 

When  hands  that  the  seed  have  scattered 
May  gather  the  blossoming. 


SAN   FRAXCISCO    EARTHQUAKES. 

S  these  not  very  desirable  visitors  come  to  us 
with  uncomfortable  frequency,  it  becomes  a 
matter  of  interest  to  inquire  into  the  probabil 
ity  of  their  continued  gentle  demeanor,  or 
whether  some  energetic  quake  may  not,  ere 
long,  be  rude  enough  to  make  a  ruinous 
smash  of  things,  and  smother  us  in  the  crushed  fragments 
of  our  own  homes.  As  we  live  on  a  coast  where  volcanic 
agencies  have  left  proofs  of  former  activity,  and  where 
numerous  hot  springs  and  sulphurous  emanations  attest 
that  their  smoldering  fires  are  not  yet  extinguished, — the 
event  above  contemplated  falls  largely  within  the  limits  of 
impossible.  But  is  it  probable? 

Without  stopping  to  investigate  the  theory  of  the  modus 
operandi  of  earthquakes.  I  shall  only  allude  to  the  fact  of 
their  occurrence  in  maximum  force  and  frequency  in  the 
vicinity  of  volcanoes  subject  to  alternate  fits  of  repose  and 
activity.  They  also  linger  for  ages  in  such  localities,  after 
all  other  external  volcanic  manifestations  have  totally 
ceased  ;  decreasing  in  strength  and  frequency  as  the  hand 
of  Time  heals  and  smooths  over  breaks  and  ruptures,  and 
soothes  the  subterranean  fires  by  opening  other  and  distant 
outlets, — until  they  come,  finally,  only  at  long  intervals, 
in  gentle  tremblings,  like  an  age-enfeebled  warrior  re-visit 
ing  his  youthful  battle-fields.  Shocks  of  more  or  less 
violence  precede  volcanic  eruptions,  and  ease  off  as  the 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  477 

craters  open  and  the  external  flow  of  lava  is  established  ; 
proving  their  intimate  connection  with  the  pent-up  fluid 
matters  struggling  to  escape.  The  violence  affecting  any 
given  point  within  the  area  of  agitation  is  of  course  in  pro 
portion  to  its  distance  from  the  center  of  disturbance,— other 
conditions  being  equal.  The  irregular  surface,  the  hetero 
geneous  material  and  variable  tenacity  of  the  crust  produce 
ever-varying  effects  upon  different  localities  of  a  district 
simultaneously  disturbed  by  a  wide-spread  force,  causing 
the  false  appearance  of  many  independent  local  actions. 
Local  and  circumscribed  disturbances  doubtless  often  occur  ; 
the  earth-wave  expanding  concentrically  from  a  central 
focus.  These  waves  are,  however,  usually  propagated 
along  a  line  of  maximum  intensity,  as  in  the  course  of  a 
volcanic  mountain  chain. 

^  The  point  of  interest  with  us  is  to  determine  this  central 
line  of  intensity  in  the  matter  of  our  own  earthquakes. 
There  are  probably  three  or  four  of  these  lines,  correspond 
ing  with  the  Sierras,  the  Coast  Range,  and  a  submarine 
range  west  of  and  parallel  with  the  last  named,  along  which 
lines  our  earth- waves  travel ;  and  from  points  within  which 
local  shocks  radiate.  If  we  take  the  number  of  heat- vents 
still  existing,  as  a  measure  of  intensity  of  the  fiery  activity 
lingering  yet  beneath  these  mountain  ranges,  we  will  find 
the  Coast  Range  far  exceeding  the  Sierras  in  that  regard. 
The  submerged  range  I  infer  to  be  far  more  active  "than 
either  of  the  others.  Its  existence  is  matter  of  theory,  based, 
however,  on  two  strongly  suggested  facts.  First,  there  is 
a  sunken  ridge,  known  as  the  Cortez  Shoals,  seventeen  miles 
long,  lying  southwesterly  and  distant  forty-six  miles  from 
the  Island  of  San  Clementes,  and  pointing  in  a  direction 
parallel  with  the  coast.  It  is  suggested  in  the  Report  of  the 
Coast  Survey  for  1862,  that  otlier  similar  developments 
might  be  looked  for  in  a  line  with  this.  (See  Coast  Survey 
Reporter  1862,  page  286.)  Second,  this  shoal,  or  sunken 
ridge,  is  volcanic,  according  to  the  statement  of  Captain 
Cropper,  of  the  steamer  Cortez,  who  reported  seeing  the 
eruptions.  A  volcanic  product,  boracic  acid,  is  found  in 
the  sea-water  from  about  this  point  northward  along  the 


478  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

entire  California  coast,  and  even  to  Puget  Sound.  This 
unusual  component  of  sea-water  is  found  within  a  narrow 
belt  along  the  shore,  not  more  than  thirty  or  forty  miles 
wide, — rendering  it  probable  that  a  line  of  volcanic  ema 
nations  exists  within  the  length  and  breadth  of  that  space  ; 
rendering  it  probable,  too,  that  Captain  Cropper  was  not 
mistaken,  as  has  been  assumed,  in  his  statement. 

The  Coast  Range  presents  the  same  peculiarity  of  yielding 
boracic  acid,  along  with  the  hot  sulphurous  waters  of  its 
numerous  mineral  springs.  At  a  few  points  boracic  salts 
exist  to  a  very  large  extent,  as  at  the  well  known  "Borax 
Lake."  The  entire  product  of  the  Coast  Range  is  insignifi 
cant,  however,  compared  with  the  great  submarine  supply. 
The  quantity  is  not  sufficient  to  be  detected  in  even  the 
larger  rivulets,  draining  the  mountains,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
rivers  and  the  sea  itself,  into  which  they  empty.  Therefore, 
the  presence  of  the  acid  in  the  shore  waters  of  the  ocean 
can  not  be  accounted  for  on  the  hypothesis  of  being  brought 
from  the  coast  mountains. 

The  ocean  supply  can  only  be  accounted  for  on  the  sup 
position  of  a  submerged  volcanic  chain  of  considerable 
activity,  yielding  boracic  acid  in  large  quantity. 

If  the  theory  is  correct,  we  may  rationally  locate  the  focus 
of  disturbance  of  our  hardest  earth-shocks  on  this  line. 
Although  shocks  doubtless  emanate  from  the  Coast  Range 
line,  yet  their  comparative  strength  and  frequency  would 
probably  be  in  proportion  to  the  relative  activity  of  the 
two  lines. 

I  therefore  conclude,  that  San  Francisco  is  removed  con 
siderably  from  the  central  disturbance  of  either  the  coast 
line  or  submarine  line  of  earthquakes  ;  that  the  intensity 
of  the  shocks  will  therefore  be  always  greatly  mitigated  ; 
and  that  the  fury  of  the  heaviest  shocks  will  be  expended 
on  the  sea  waves  thirty  or  forty  miles  from  the  shore  ;  and 
therefore  the  shore  is  probably  safe  from  any  shock  of 
very  great  destructive  violence. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  479 


COURSE    OF   THE    EARTH-WAVE. 


Our  shocks  seem  generally  to  come  from  the  south  and 
proceed  north.  If  we  imagine  our  earth-wave  having  its 
center  of  disturbance  in  the  submerged  line  above-named, 
and  moving  along  it  toward  the  north,  spreading  out  its 
wings  on  either  side  as  it  rolls  onward,  the  result  would 
be  as  the  shore  wing  passed  under  San  Francisco,  to  sway 
perpendicular  objects  first  to  the  north,  or  perhaps  to  the 
northeast,  and  then  back  again,  uplifting  at  the  same  time. 
Two  or  more  of  such  movements  might  occur,  and  then 
would  follow  the  reactionary  wave  falling  in  the  wake  of 
the  central  disturbance,  to  fill  up,  as  it  were,  the  depres 
sion  produced  by  its  onward  movement.  This  would  cause 
an  inclination  of  perpendicular  bodies,  first  toward  the 
west  and  then  toward  the  east,  nearly  at  right  angles  with 
the  first  movements.  These  two  classes  of  movements  are 
actually  observed  in  most  cases  where  both  the  initial  and 
closing  motions  are  noted.  They  prove  conclusively  that 
the  center  of  disturbance  passes  on  one  side,  and  not  under 
the  city  ;  for  in  the  latter  case  the  movement  would  be  only 
back  and  forth  in  the  direction  of  the  passing  wave. 

Shocks,  where  the  first  heave  is  toward  the  north  and 
east,  probably  are  located  in  the  marine  line  of  disturbance, 
the  wave  moving  north  ;  those  giving  a  southwest  heave 
probably  come  from  the  coast  line,  the  wave  moving  in 
the  same  direction. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  no  systematic  mode  of  observa 
tion  has  heretofore  been  applied  to  these  interesting  phe 
nomena.  It  is  to  be  hoped  some  of  our  scientific  men  may 
have  the  means  and  leisure  ere  long  to  establish  some  mode 
of  noting,  with  comparative  accuracy,  the  details  of  earth 
quake  action.— Dr.  JOHX  A.  VEATCII,  in  the  S.  F.  Mining 
and  Scientific  Press,  San  Francisco,  March  31,  1868. 


480  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


CALIFORNIA    CHILDREN. 

jHE  children  of  California  are  certainly  a  great 
improvement  upon  those  not  born  among  us. 
Nowhere  can  more  rosy  specimens  of  health  and 
beauty  be  found.  Strong-limbed,  red-blooded, 
graceful,  and  as  full  of  happy  animal  life  as 
young  fawns,  they  bid  fair  to  develop  into 
admirable  types  of  manhood  and  womanhood.  To  them, 
loving  their  native  soil  with  no  acquired  love,  knowing  no 
associations  which  are  not  linked  with  its  blue  skies  and 
its  yellow  hills,  we  must  look  for  its  proper  inhabitants, 
who  will  retain  all  that  is  vigorous,  earnest,  and  generous  in 
the  present  race,  rejecting  all  that  is  coarse  and  mean.  For 
myself,  in  breathing  an  air  sweeter  than  that  which  first 
caught  the  honeyed  words  of  Plato— in  looking  upon 
lovelier  vales  than  those  of  Tempe  and  Eurotas — in  wander 
ing  through  a  land  whose  sentinel  peak  of  Shasta  far  over 
tops  the  Olympian  throne  of  Jupiter — I  could  not  but  feel 
that  nature  must  be  false  to  her  promise,  or  man  is  not  the 
splendid  creature  he  once  was,  if  the  art,  the  literature, 
and  philosophy  of  ancient  Greece  are  not  one  day  rivaled 
on  this  last  of  inhabited  shores! — Bayard  Taylor,  July, 
1860. 


CALIFORNIA    POETS. 

/ 

WE  suppose  that  Eastern  literati  will  smile  derisively  at 
the  assumption  that  poets  are  discoverable  in  this  far-off 
West,  which,  in  their  imagination,  is  much  associated  with 
bowie-knives  and  buckskin  wardrobes ;  but  we  shall  en 
deavor  occasionally  to  present  a  sample  of  domestic  manu 
facture,  which,  if  the  critics  can  be  divested  of  strong 
prejudice,  may,  possibly,  induce  them  to  confess  that 
among  the  monstrosities  of  this  coast,  a  maker  or  two  of 
good  verse  may  be  found.  If  we  could  delude  them  by 
assurance  that  the  following  poem  was  written  by  Tennyson, 
or  some  renowned  foreigner,  we  have  not  a  doubt  but  what 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  481 

it  would  be  pronounced  prodigiously  fine  ;  but,  unhappily, 
it  was  not ;  it  was  constructed  by  a  miner,  away  up  in  the 
lonesome  defiles  of  Trinity  Mountain— a  poet  who  blends 
invocation  of  the  Muses  with  the  uses  of  the  pick  and  ax, 
and  who,  smiting  the  unyielding  rock,  thinks  as  tenderly, 
and  beautifully,  and  grandly  as  though  the  world  were  to 
catch  up  every  syllable  with  acclamation.  L.  F.  WELLS  is 
a  true  poet,  and  he  it  was  who  wrote  the  song  of 

MARY    BROWN. 

She  dwelt  where  long  the  wintry  showers 

Hold  undisputed  sway, 
Where  frowning  April  drives  the  flowers 

Far  down  the  lane  of  May. 
A  simple,  rustic  child  of  song, 

Reared  in  a  chilliim  zone, 

O 

The  idol  of  a  household  throng — 

The  cherished  one  of  home. 
None  sang  her  praise,  or  heard  her  fame 

Beyond  her  native  town ; 
She  bore  no  fancy- woven  name, 

'Twas  simple  Mary  Brown. 

Her  eyes  were  not  a  shining  black, 

Nor  yet  a  heavenly  blue, 
They  might  be  hazel,  or,  alack ! 

Some  less  poetic  hue  ; 
Indeed,  I  mind  me,  long  ago, 

One  pleasant  summer  day 
A  passing  stranger  caught  their  glow, 

I  think  he  -called  them  gray. 
Yet  when  with  earnestness  they  burned, 

Till  other  eyes  grew  dim, 
Their  outward  tint  was  ne'er  discerned, 

Their  spell  was  from  within. 

A  novelist,  with  fancy's  pen, 

Would  scarcely  strive  to  trace 
From  her  a  fairy  heroine 

Of  matchless  mem  and  grace. 


482  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

A  model  for  the  painter's  skill, 

Or  for  the  sculptor's  art, 
Her  form  might  not  be  called ;  yet  still 

It  bore  a  gentle  heart ; 
The  while  it  fondly  treasured  long 

Love's  lightest  whispered  tone, 
In  other  hearts  she  sought  no  wrong, 

She  knew  none  in  her  own. 

Though  never  skilled  in  fashion's  school, 

To  sweep  the  trembling  keys ; 
Or  strike  the  harp  by  studied  rule, 

A  listening  throng  to  please  ; 
Yet  still  when  anguish  rent  the  soul, 

And  fever  racked  the  brain, 
Her  fingers  knew  that  skillful  touch 

Which  soothed  the  brow  of  pain — 
And  widow  thanks  and  orphan  tears 

Had  owned  her  tender  care, 
While  little  children  gathered  near 

Her  earnest  love  to  share. 

I  might  forget  the  queenly  dame 

Of  high  and  courtly  birth, 
Descending  from  an  ancient  name 

Among  the  sons  of  earth  ; 
I  scarce  recall  the  dazzling  eyes 

Of  her  the  village  belle, 
Who  caused  so  many  rural  sighs 

From  rustic  hearts  to  swell ; 
Yet  never  can  I  cease  to  own 

While  future  years  shall  roll, 
Thy  passing  beauty,  Mary  Brown — 

The  beauty  of  the  soul. 
TRINITY  RIVER,  August,  1858. 

San  Francisco  Mirror,  September  3,  1860. 


THE    BEAUTIFUL. 

MEN  are  so  inclined  to  content  themselves  with  what 
is  commonest,  the  spirit  and  the   senses  so  easily  grow 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  483 

dead  to  the  impression  of  the  "beautiful  and  perfect,  that 
every  one  should  study  to  nourish  in  his  mind  the  faculty 
of  feeling  these  things  by  every  method  in  his  power.  For 
no  man  can  bear  to  be  entirely  deprived  of  such  enjoyments  ; 
it  is  only  because  they  are  not  used  to  taste  of  what  is  ex 
cellent,  that  the  generality  of  people  take  delight  in  silly 
and  insipid  things,  provided  that  they  be  new.  For  this 
reason,  one  ought  every  day  at  least  to  hear  a  good  song, 
read  a  good  poem,  see  a  fine  picture,  and,  if  it  be  possible, 
to  speak  a  few  reasonable  words. — Goethe. 


POEM,    BY   JOHN   R.    RIDGE,    ON  THE    LAYING   OF    THE   ATLANTIC   TELE 
GRAPH    CABLE. 

Head  at  Marysville,   September  27,  1858. 

LET  Earth  be  glad  !  for  that  great  work  is  done, 
Which  makes,  at  last,  the  Old  and  New  World  one! 
Let  all  mankind  rejoice ;  for  time  nor  space 
Shall  check  the  progress  of  the  human  race ! 
Though  Nature  heaved  the  Continents  apart, 
She  cast  in  one  great  mold  the  human  heart ; 
She  framed  on  one  grand  plan  the  human  mind, 
And  gave  man  speech  to  link  him  to  his  kind : 
So  that,  though  plains  and  mountains  intervene, 
Or  oceans,  broad  and  stormy,  roll  between, 
If  there  but  be  a  courier  for  the  thought, 
Swift-winged  or  slow,  the  lands  and  seas  are  naught, 
And  man  is  nearer  to  his  brother  brought. 

First,  ere  the  dawn  of  letters  was,  or  burst 
The  light  of  science  on  the  world,  men,  nursed 
In  distant  solitudes  apart,  did  send 
Midst  lurking  foes  and  dangers  without  end, 
Their  skin-clad  heralds  forth,  to  thread  the  woods, 
Scale  mountain  peaks,  or  swim  the  sudden  floods, 
And  bear  their  messages  of  peace  or  war. 
Next,  beasts  were  tamed  to  drag  the  rolling  car, 


484:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Or  speed  the  mounted  rider  on  his  track. 

And,  then  came,  too,  the  vessels  oar-propelled, 

Which  fled  the  ocean  as  the  clouds  grew  black, 

And  safe  near  shore  their  prudent  courses  held. 

Next  came  the  winged  ships,  which,  brave  and  free, 

Did  skim  the  bosom  of  the  bounding  sea, 

And  dared  the  storms  and  darkness  in  their  flight — 

Yet,  drifted  far  before  the  winds  and  night, 

Or  lay  within  the  Dead  Calm's  grasp  of  might. 

Then,  sea-divided  nations  nearer  came, 

Stood  face  to  face,  spake  each  the  other's  name, 

In  friendship  grew,  and  learned  the  truth  sublime, 

That  man  is  man,  in  every  age  and  clime ! 

They  nearer  were,  by  months  and  years — but  space 

Must  still  be  shortened  in  Improvement's  race ; 

And  STEAM  came  next,  to  wake  the  world  from  sleep, 

And  launched  her  black-plumed  warriors  of  the  deep ; 

The  which,  in  calm  or  storm,  rode  onward  still, 

And  braved  the  raging  elements  at  will. 

Then  distance,  which,  from  calms'  and  storms'  delays, 

Grew  into  months,  was  shortened  into  days, 

And  Science'  self  declared  her  wildest  dream 

Reached  not  beyond  this  miracle  of  steam ! 

But,  STEAM  hath  not  the  lightning's  wondrous  power, 

Though  Titan-like  midst  Science'  sons  it  tower, 

And  wrestle  with  the  ocean  in  his  wrath, 

And  sweep  the  wild  waves  foaming  from  its  path. 

A  mightier  monarch  is  that  subtler  thing 

Which  gives  to  human  thought  its  thought-swift  wing ; 

Which  speaks  in  thunder,  like  a  God, 

Or  humbly  stoops  to  kiss  the  lifted  rod ; 

Ascends  to  Night's  dim,  solitary  throne, 

And  drapes  it  with  a  splendor  not  its  own — 

A  ghastly  grandeur  and  a  ghostly  sheen, 

Through  which  the  pale  stars  tremble  as  they're  seen ; 

Descends  to  fire  the  far  horizon's  rim, 

And  paints  Mount  ^Etna  in  the  cloudland  grim; 

Or,  proud  to  own  fair  Science'  rightful  sway, 

Low  bends  along  the  electric  wire  to  play, 

And,  helping  out  the  ever-wondrous  plan, 

Becomes,  in  sooth,  an  errand-boy  for  man  ! 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  485 

This  power  it  was,  which,  not  content  with  aught 

As  yet  achieved  by  human  will  or  thought, 

Disdained  the  slow  account  of  months  or  days, 

In  navigation  of  the  ocean-ways, 

And  days  would  shorten  into  hours  and  these 

To  minutes,  in  the  face  of  angered  seas  ! 

If  thought  might  not  be  borne  upon  the  foam 

Of  furrowing  keel,  with  speed  that  thought  should  roam, 

It  then  should  walk,  like  light,  the  ocean's  bed, 

And  laugh  to  scorn  the  winds  and  waves  o'erhead  ! 

Beneath  the  reach  of  storm  or  wreck,  down  where 

The  skeletons  of  men  and  navies  are, 

Its  silent  steps  should  be  ;  while  o'er  its  path 

The  monsters  of  the  deep,  in  sport  or  wrath, 

The  waters  lashed,  till,  like  a  pot  should  boil 

The  sea,  and  fierce  AEION  paw  th'  up-cast  spoil ! 

America  !  to  thee  belongs  the  praise 

Of  this  great,  crowning  deed  of  modern  days  ; 

'Twas  FRANKLIX  called  the  wonder  from  on  liio-h — 

& 

'Twas  MORSE  who  bade  it  on  man's  errands  fly — 
'Twas  he  foretold  its  pathway  'neath  the  sea — 
A  daring  FIELD  fulfilled  the  prophecy  ! 

'Twas  fitting  that  a  great,  free  land,  like  this, 
Should  give  the  Lightning's  voice  to  Liberty ; 
Should  wing  the  heralds  of  earth's  happiness, 
And  sins:,  beneath  the  ever-sounding  sea, 

O  '  O  * 

The  fair,  the  bright  millennial  days  to  be. 

Now  may,  ere  long,  the  sword  be  sheathed,  to  rust, 

The  helmet  laid  in  undistinguished  dust ; 

The  thund'rous  chariot  pause  in  mid  career, 

Its  crimsoned  wheels  no  more  through  blood  to  steer ; 

The  red-hoofed  steed  from  fields  of  death  be  led, 

Or  turned  to  pasture  where  the  armies  bled ; 

For  nation  unto  nation  soon  shall  be 

Together  brought  in  knitted  unity, 

And  man  be  bound  to  man,  by  that  strong  chain, 

Which,  linking  land  to  land  and  main  to  main, 

Shall  vibrate  to  the  voice  of  Peace,  and  be 

A  throbbing  heart-string  of  HUMANITY  ! 


486  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


THE    OLD    GIANTS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

THERE  were  giants  once  on  this  coast,  all  the  denials  of 
savans  and  doubters,  notwithstanding.  Not  less  than  four 
well-known  cases  have  been  noted  of  the  discovery  of  the 
remains  of  the  giant  Californians  of  Sierra  Nevadas,  to  wit : 
;pjrst — a  skull  bone  was  found  in  Trinity  County  in  1856  ; 
second— there  were  found  in  Tuolurane  County,  in  1860,  a 
thigh  bone  and  skull  of  a  man  twelve  feet  high ;  third- 
there  were  discovered  near  Jacksonville,  in  Southern 
Oregon,  in  May,  1862,  a  pair  of  human  jaw  bones  of  the 
immense  breadth  of  seven  inches  ;  and  fourth — there  were 
discovered  in  1762,  near  the  Mission  of  Ignacio  de  Kadaka- 
man,  in  latitude  twenty-eight  degrees  north,  on  the  Pacific 
coast  of  Lower  California,  the  vertebrae,  skull,  ribs,  &c.,  of 
a  man  eleven  feet  in  height,  which  were  found  by  one  of  the 
old  Jesuit  priests.  These  accounts,  with  several  others  on 
the  human  fossils  of  California  and  Mexico,  as  disinterred 
by  the  gold  miners  with  their  wonder-working  water 
machinery,  may  be  found  in  the  u  Notes  on  the  Indians  of 
California,"  now  in  the  course  of  publication  in  the  Farmer 
of  San  Francisco.  Such  remains  of  the  ancient  races  ought 
to  be  preserved.  The  skull  or  other  remains  of  a  giant 
twelve  feet  liigli,  is  worth  its  weight  in  gold,  in  London  or 
Paris. — San  Francisco  Bulletin. 


NORTHERN    GOLD    DISCOVERIES. 


THE  first  intimation  that  gold  existed  in  Eastern  Oregon, 
Washington,  and  what  is  now  Idaho  Territories,  by  a  white 
man,  is  said  to  have  come  from  Capt.  Pierce,  from  whom 
Pierce  City  since  took  its  name.  As  early  as  1852,  while 
on  a  trading  expedition  with  the  Nez  Perces,  he  became 
satisfied  that  this  was  a  gold  bearing  country,  but  the 
hostility  of  the  Indians  prevented  him  in  various  attempts 
to  test  the  truth  in  his  belief  until  as  late  as  1860,  while,  in 
the  mean  time,  when\the  captain  resided  in  California,  Mr. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  487 

Robbins,  of  Portland,  purchased  ten  dollars'  worth,  of  gold 
dust  from  a  Spokane  Indian,  in  1854,  which  led  to  pros 
pecting  in  that  country,  and  in  1855,  some  Frenchmen  and 
half-breeds  from  Oregon,  struck  the  Colville  mines.  Dur 
ing  this  year  the  Indian  war  very  nearly  put  a  stop  to 
prospecting  until  as  late  as  '58,  when  Captain  Pierce  again 
arrived  in  the  country,  and  attempted  to  prospect  the  Nez 
Perces  country,  but  found  the  Indians  hostile,  and  sus 
pended  operations  until  1860,  when  a  party  of  some  ninety 
men  went  into  the  Oro  Fino  district,  arid  finding— as  they 
anticipated — good  diggings,  they  wintered  there.  In  1861 
Oro  Grande  and  South  Clearwater  were  discovered,  and  late 
in  the  fall  the  rich  Salmon  River  placers.  During  the  year 
1861  valuable  deposits  were  developed  on  Powder,  John 
Day's,  and  Burnt  rivers,  and  in  1862,  the  greatest  and  most 
important  mineral  district  of  all  was  brought  to  light  in  the 
discovery  of  the  Boise  Basin.  Meanwhile  Beaver  Head  and 
Big  Hole  were  found,  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. — Boise 
News. 


THE    GOLDEN    IIEGIKA. 

the  date  of  the  discovery  of  America  the  whole 
amount  of  gold  in  commercial  Europe  was  esti- 
timated  at  $170,000,000.  During  the  succeed 
ing  one  hundred  and  twelve  years,  the  open 
ing  of  new  fields  of  supply  added  about 
),  387, 500, 000,  so  that  had  there  been  no  loss  nor  shipments, 
there  should  have  been  at  the  commencement_of  the  present 
century  $6,557,500,000  in  the  commercial  world.  If  to  this 
we  add  the  enormous  receipts  from  California  and  Australia, 
developed  in  late  years,  and  the  continued  supplies  drawn 
from  the  older  fields,  the  statement  will  seem  incredible 
that  instead  of  accumulating,  the  stock  of  gold  in  Europe  is 
actually  on  the  decrease.  The  inquiry  then  naturally 
arises,  what  becomes  of  the  precious  metal  ? 

In  a  paper  read  before  the  Polytechnic  Association,  Dr. 
Stephens  stated  that  of  our  annual  gold  product,  full  fifteen 


488  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

per  cent,  is  melted  down  for  manufactures  ;  thirty-five  per 
cent,  goes  to  Europe  ;  twenty -five  per  cent,  to  Cuba  ;  fifteen 
per  cent,  to  Brazil  ;  five  per  cent,  direct  to  Japan  and  the 
Indies — leaving  but  five  per  cent,  for  circulation  in  this 
country.  Of  that  which  goes  to  Cuba,  the  West  Indies  and 
Brazil,  full  fifty  per  cent,  finds  its  way  to  Europe,  where, 
after  deducting  a  large  percentage  used  in  manufacturing, 
four-fifths  of  the  remainder  is  exported  to  India.  Here  the 
transit  of  the  precious  metal  is  at  an  end ;  here  the  sup 
ply,  however  vast,  is  absorbed,  and  never  returns  to  the 
civilized  world. 

The  Orientals  consume  but  little,  while  their  productions 
have  ever  been  in  demand  among  the  Western  nations.  As 
mere  recipients  therefore,  these  nations  have  acquired  the 
desire  of  accumulation  and  hoarding,  a  passion  common 
alike  to  all  classes  among  the  Egyptians,  Indians,  Chinese 
and  Persians.  A  French  economist  states  that  in  his 
opinion  the  former  nation  alone  hide  away  $20,000,000  of 
gold  and  silver  annually,  and  the  present  Emperor  of  Mo 
rocco  is  reported  as  so  addicted  to  this  avaricious  mania  that 
he  has  filled  seventeen  large  chambers  with  the  precious 
metals.  The  passion  of  princes,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 
same  spirit  is  shared  by  their  subjects,  and  it  is  in  this  pre 
dilection  that  we  discover  the  solution  of  the  problem  as  to 
the  ultimate  disposition  of  the  precious  metals.  This 
absorption  by  the  Eastern  nations  has  been  uninterruptedly 
going  on  since  the  most  remote  historical  period.  Accord 
ing  to  Pliny,  $100,000,000  in  gold  was  in  his  days  annually 
exported  to  the  East.  The  balance  of  trade  in  favor  of 
these  nations  is  now  given  as  $90,000,000  annually. 

Actual  loss  to  the  world,  to  a  great  amount,  is  yearly 
caused  by  sinking  in  the  ocean,  and  in  some  of  the  pro 
cesses  employed  in  the  arts,  as  plating  and  gilding.  In 
concluding,  an  estimate  concerning  the  actual  loss  of  coin 
in  circulation  by  abrasion  may  be  proper.  In  a  report 
made  by  the  United  States  Mint  a  few  years  since,  is  given 
the  following  results  of  some  careful  and  comprehensive 
experiments  made  at  the  Mint  to  ascertain  this  loss,  show 
ing  that  waste  of  gold  and  silver  by  this  cause  has  been 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  489 

generally  over  estimated.  "  On  our  silver  coins,  taken  pro 
miscuously,  the  average  amount  of  loss  from  abrasion  was 
ascertained  to  be  one  part  in  3,5oO  ;  the  double  eagle  one 
in  9,000  ;  and  a  careful  estimate  as  to  the  proportions  of  the 
various  sizes  of  coins  actually  in  circulation  in  the  United 
States,  made  of  two  metals,  led  to  the  conviction  that  the 
yearly  loss  does  not  exceed  one  part  in  2,400." 


OUR   BABY. 

IN  the  cradle,  here  by  me, 

Something  fair  reposes, 
Whiter  than  the  lilies  be, 

Sweeter  than  the  roses. 

On  the  pillow  soft  is  laid 

Something  young  and  tender, 

Stainless  brow  and  shining  head, 
Fingers  white  and  slender. 

Lids  like  snow-flakes,  drooped  above, 
Eyes  like  summer  blossom, 

Lips  a  rosebud,  made  for  love, 
Dimpled  cheek  and  bosom. 

Fairest  flowers  from  forest  dell, 

Dearer  for  their  fleetness, 
Waxen  bud  and  lily  bell 

Best  befit  his  sweetness. 

Much  we  wonder,  when  he  sleeps, 

What  his  eyes  are  seeing, 
Knowing  well  that  angels  keep 

Watch  about  his  being. 

For  a  moment  round  his  eyes 
Radiant  smiles  are  beaming, 

Then  he  starts  with  grieving  cries — 
Is  the  baby  dreaming  ? 


490  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Gentle  shepherd  !  who  dost  hold 
In  thy  tender  keeping 

All  the  lambs  within  thy  fold, 
Waking  or  in  sleeping  ; 

We  are  weak  who  fold  the  child 
In  our  fond  caressing  ; 

Grant  to  crown  our  undefiled, 
Thy  divinest  blessing. 


SCENERY    OP    THE    SAN    JOAQUIN    VALLEY. 


San  Joaquin  valley  may  "be  said  to  possess 
no  picturesque  scenery.  Like  the  prairies  of 
the  West,  it  is  a  vast  undulating  plain  or  dead 
level,  with  an  occasional  tree  or  park  of  oaks 
*°  ^versify  the  general  monotony.  No  tim 
ber  of  account  springs  up  along  the  streams, 
no  thickets  of  green  shrubbery  relieve  the  eye,  no  murmur 
ing  rills  disturb  the  ear,  but  through  the  fervid  plains  of 
autumn  the  waters  sluggishly  wander  ladened  with  the 
ochery  sediment  of  distant  placer  mines.  Yet  within  the 
sight,  at  a  slight  elevation  above  the  horizon,  the  view 
changes.  The  mountains  rise  in  Olympian  majesty,  their 
bases  running  off  into  gentle  slopes  or  rugged  spurs,  cut  up 
into  innumerable  configurations  of  landscape,  while  their 
dull  brownish  outline  is  relieved  by  groves  of  evergreen 
timber,  and  their  upper  summits  are  sparkling  with  snow 
or  lost  in  the  empyrean  vault  of  heaven.  If  the  flatness 
and  tameness  of  the  valley  is  insipid,  the  grandeur  of  the 
mountain  scenery  inspires  a  feeling  of  awe  and  sublimity. 
Yet  the  valleys,  for  a  few  months  of  the  early  year,  have  a 
tranquil,  modest  beauty  in  their  verdurous  monotony  ;  but 
nothing  is  more  desolate  than  the  plains  in  the  autumn 
months,  when  the  herbage  has  been  scorched  sere  and 
brown,  and  even  the  homely  fact  of  its  still-existing  nutri 
tious  qualities  does  not  recompense  for  the  lack  of  inspiring 
influences  the  scene  gives  to  nature.  Seen  in  this  phase,  so 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


491 


different  from  all  home  associations,  one  wonders  not  that 
the  early  adventurers  never  dreamed  of  the  riches  slumber 
ing  in  the  soil — which  wore  so  unprepossessing  an  aspect — 
but  only  believed  in  the  mineral  wealth  they  came  to  seek. 
The  wonder  of  the  Alpine  scenery,  the  Yosemite  Falls,  on 
the  head-waters  of  the  Merced,  are  the  most  picturesque 
and  elevated  cataracts  in  the  world.  The  Merced,  a  stream 
of  considerable  magnitude,  precipitates  itself  at  the  first  fall 
a  sheer  perpendicular  descent  of  1,600  feet,  and  a  succeed- 


NIGHT  SCENE  ON  THE  SAN  JOAQUIN  RIVER. 

ing  fall  is  434  feet.  There  are  other  falls— one  of  700  feet, 
another  of  750  feet,  and  a  third  of  300  feet,  on  a  branch  of 
the  same  stream.  They  are  in  the  region  of  elevated  peaks 
and  rugged  precipices,  one  of  which  has  a  perpendicular 
descent  of  4,000  feet.  In  this  region,  and  the  mountain  re 
gion  for  two  hundred  rpiles,  the  most  sublime  Alpine  scenery 
is  to  be  found,  which  annually  attracts  many  curious  visit 
ors.  The  Coast  Range  does  not  exceed  an  average  altitude  of 
3,000  feet,  and  in  fertile  portions  is  covered  to  the  summit 
with  wild  indigenous  oats,  that  give  to  them  in  the  spring 


492  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

season  a  peculiarly  lovely  grandeur.  The  plains,  at  this 
season,  are  clothed  in  green  verdure,  into  which  intermin 
gles  the  golden  lily  and  myriads  of  native  wild  flowers ; 
and  the  cheerful  pipings  of  the  lark,  quail,  and  myriads  of 
feathered  songsters,  make  the  air  vocal  with  their  notes.  In 
the  Tulare  country,  along  the  Kahweah  and  King's  rivers, 
the  virgin  soil  gives  growth  to  beautiful  groves  of  cotton- 
wood  and  sycamore,  and  their  margins  are  fringed  with  per 
ennial  verdure.  Climate  and  soil  conspire  to  give  birth  to 
the  most  picturesque  sylvan  scenery  and  grandest  monu 
ments  of  Nature.  Here  will  become,  in  future  years,  the 
tropical  Paradise  of  California. — Stocktori  Independent, 
April  27,  1868. 


THE    RESULTS    OF   THE    CALIFORNIA     STATE    GEOLOGICAL   SURVEY    OF 

1864. 


IRST.    It  has  been  ascertained  that  the  gold 
deposits  of  the   State  lie  not  in  the   silurian 
rocks,  which  were  previously  considered  to  be 
the  basis  of  all  rich  auriferous  regions,  but  in 
the    Jurassic   or  triassic  lithological  formations 
of  later  date. 

Second.  It  has  been  ascertained  that  the  coal  region  of 
California  lies  not  in  the  tertiary  rocks,  as  was  previously 
supposed,  but  in  the  cretaceous,  the  highest  portion  of  the 
secondary  era. 

Third.  All  the  rich  gold  mines  of  the  State  are  found  in 
the  Jurassic  and  triassic  rocks  ;  all  the  valuable  coal  and 
quicksilver  in  the  cretaceous. 

Fourth.  The  limits  of  the  Jurassic  and  cretaceous  have 
been  traced  with  tolerable  accuracy  over  most  of  the  area 
of  the  State. 

Fifth.  The  metallurgical  processes  used  in  our  gold  mines 
were  carefully  studied  and  described  a  year  or  two  ago,  but 
the  work  must  be  rewritten  to  bring  it  up  to  the  present 
advanced  stage  of  that  branch  of  industry. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  493 

Sixth.  All  the  principal  high  points  of  the  State,  long 
known,  have  been  ascended,  their  geological  character 
examined,  and  their  precise  altitude  ascertained. 

Seventh.  It  has  been  ascertained  that  Mount  Shasta  is  not 
the  highest  point  in  the  State. 

Eighth.  A  large  district,  previously  unheard  of  by  the 
public,  has  been  found  to  rise  to  a  height  of  eleven  thou 
sand  feet  or  more,  with  a  hundred  peaks  that  rise  about 
thirteen  thousand  feet,  and  a  general  elevation,  extent,  and 
grandeur  of  scenery  that  surpass  Switzerland. 

Ninth.  Canons  have  been  found  deeper  and  longer  than 
Yosemite. 

Tenth.  The  Big  Tree  has  been  found  to  exist,  not  merely 
in  a  few  isolated  groves,  as  was  supposed,  but  in  extensive 
forests,  with  tens  of  thousands  of  trees,  along  a  consider 
able  portion  of  the  Sierra  Nevada. 

Eleventh.  Large  bodies  of  excellent  pasturage  were  found 
in  places  previously  unknown  to  the  whites. 

Twelfth.  It  has  been  ascertained  to  the  satisfaction  of 
Professor  Whitney,  that  the  men  and  mammoths,  whose 
bones  are  found  deep  in  the  hills  of  the  mining  districts, 
lived  together  in  the  same  age,  and  their  remains  were 
buried  side  by  side  in  the  same  natural  convulsions,  which 
happened  many  thousands,  perhaps  hundreds  of  thousands, 
of  years  ago. 

Thirteenth.  An  extensive  collection  of  minerals,  vegeta 
bles,  and  preserved  or  stuffed  animals  has  been  obtained, 
and  will  be  prepared  for  exhibition  so  soon  as  the  State 
prepares  a  proper  place  for  it. 

Fourteenth.  The  people  of  this  State  have  shown  their 
desire  to  understand  the  nature  of  their  country,  and  they 
will  be  respected  abroad  for  their  enterprise,  liberality  and 
judgment  in  carrying  out  this  important  work. 


494  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


CALIFORNIA   PRICES    IN    1849. 

COPY  of  a  bill  of  fare  of  a  fashionable  eating-house  in  San 
Francisco,  at  the  end  of  1849  :— 

BILL   OF  FARE— WARD  HOUSE. 

RUSSELL   &  MYERS PROPRIETORS. 

Thursday,  December  27,  1849. 
SOUP. 

Ox  Tail.  .4 $1  00 

FISH. 

Baked  Trout,  White  and  Anchovy  Sauce $1  50 

ROAST. 

Beef $1  00  I  Mutton,  stuffed $1  00 

Lamb,  stuffed 1  00  |  Pork,  Apple  Sauce 1  25 

BOILED. 

Leg  Mutton,  Caper  Sauce $1  25  |  Corned  Beef  and  Cabbage $1  25 

Ham $1  00 

ENTREES. 

Curried  Sausages,  a  mie $1  00 

Beef,  stewed  with  Onions 1  25 

Tenderloin  Lamb,  Green  Peas 1  25 

Venison,  Port  Wine  Sauce 1  50 

Stewed  Kidney,  Sauce  de  Champagne 1  25 

EXTRAS. 

Fresh  California  Eggs,  each $1  00 

GAME. 

Curlew,  roast  or  boiled,  to  order $3  00 

VEGETABLES. 


Sweet  Potatoes,  baked $0  50 

Irish          do.        boiled. .  0  50 


Irish  Potatoes,  mashed $0  50 

0  50 


Squash $0  50 


PASTRY. 


Bread  Pudding $0  75 

Mince  Pie 0  75 

Apple  Pie 0  75 

Brandy  Peach 2  00 


Rum  Omelette $2  00 

Jelly      do 2  00 

Cheese 0  50 

Stewed  Prunes 0  75 


WINES. 


Champagne $5  00  I  Claret $2  00 

do.         half  bottles 3  00  |  Champagne  Cider 2  00 

Pale  Sherry 3  00 

Old  Maderia 400 


Old  Port,  half  bottles 175 


Porter .   2  00 

Ale 2  00 

Brandy,  per  bottle 2  00 


BREAKFAST— From  half-past  7  to  11  A.  M. 
DINNER— From  half-past  1  to  6  P.  M. 
TEA— From  half-past  6  to  12. 

Pioneer  Magazine. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  495 


A    GREAT    ORATORICAL    FEAT. 


;NE  of  the  most  remarkable  feats  of  endurance  in 
a  speaker  which  we  remember  ever  to  have 
heard  of,  comes  to  us  from  Victoria,  Vancouver 
Island.  In  the  legislative  assembly  of  that 
place,  we  are  told  that  Leonard  McClure  spoke 
seventeen  hours  without  pausing  or  sitting  down.  To  those 
who  are  unacquainted  with  the  circumstance,  this  feat  might 
not  unreasonably  appear  proper  to  be  placed  in  the  same 
category  with  the  exertions  of  those  ambitious  pedestrians 
who,  for  wagers,  walk  a  thousand  miles  in  a  thousand  hours. 
It  may  easily  be  supposed  that  McClure' s  speech  could  not 
have  been  a  masterpiece  of  oratory,  nor  is  it  likely  that  his 
inducement  was  greater  than  that  which  moved  Edmund 
Burke,  when,  at  the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  after  pouring 
out  for  fourteen  hours  a  torrent  of  impassioned  eloquence, 
the  majestic  mind  collapsed  under  the  force  of  physical 
fatigue,  and  he  fell  fainting  into  the  arms  of  Sheridan.  But 
we  know  of  no  instance  of  stubborn  tenacity  equal  to  this 
of  McClure' s,  and  the  cause  was  one  which  should  make 
him  famous  in  the  annals  of  the  British  colonies.  A  year 
ago  a  large  quantity  of  land  in  and  about  Victoria  was 
seized  by  the  Government  for  arrears  of  taxes,  and  was  by 
it  held  on  the  understanding  expressed  and  published,  that 
the  owners  could  have  and  repossess  their  lots  by  paying 
the  taxes  within  a  twelvemonth  of  the  seizure.  But  it  be 
came  known  a  few  days  before  the  expiration  of  the  allotted 
term  that  a  plot  was  on  foot,  hatched  by  the  Government 
and  backed  by  a  venal  majority  of  the  House  of  Assembly, 
to  pass  a  bill  authorizing  the  executive  to  repudiate  its 
contract  with  the  land-owners,  refusing  to  accept  payment 
of  arrears  and  seizing  upon  and  retaining  permanently  the 
disputed  lots.  Two  men  in  that  House  opposed  that  meas 
ure.  Their  names  were  Amor  de  Cosmos  and  Leonard 
McClure.  They  knew  that  they  had  nothing  to  hope  from 
their  compeers  or  from  the  Government,  and  they  prepared 


496  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

themselves  accordingly.  The  House  had  made  up  its  mind, 
with  these  two  exceptions,  to  rush  through  the  obnoxious 
bill  on  the  day  before  the  twelvemonth  expired.  There  was 
but  one  way  to  prevent  this,  and  it  was  adopted  resolutely. 
On  the  House  being  opened,  McClure  rose  to  his  feet,  the  time 
being  noon,  and  kept  the  floor  until  five  o'clock  the  follow 
ing  morning.  For  seventeen  hours  he  continued  to  speak, 
whilst  every  effort  was  made  by  the  purchased  majority  to 
put  him  down  and  to  tire  him  out.  With,  a  merciless  una 
nimity  they  refused  to  allow  him  to  lean  against  a  table,  to 
put  his  foot  upon  a  chair  for  a  moment,  to  relieve  the  irk- 
someness  of  his  position  by  resting  his  hand  upon  any 
thing,  or  to  speak,  in  short,  in  any  other  than  a  rigidly 
erect  and  unsupported  attitude.  During  the  whole  of  the 
time  they  relieved  each  other  at  intervals,  going  out  and  pro 
curing  such  refreshment  as  they  needed,  and  always  leaving 
a  quorum  in  the  House.  When  McClure  sank  exhausted 
into  his  seat,  as  the  light  of  another  morning  was  stealing 
into  the  windows  of  the  Assembly-house,  Be  Cosmos  rose, 
and  for  the  remaining  seven  hours  of  the  twenty-four  talked 
against  time.  On  rising,  amid  the  groans  and  hisses  of  the 
disgusted  and  infuriated  majority,  he  exclaimed,  with  more 
force  than  refinement,  that  it  was  useless  for  honorable 
members  to  evince  their  malice  in  that  manner,  for  he  had 
got  up  with  the  determination  to  talk,  if  necessary,  ' c  until 
the  angel  Gabriel  sounded  the  last  trump."  His  powers  of 
endurance  were  not  quite  so  severely  tested,  but  the  end 
was  achieved,  and  when  the  clock  struck  twelve  the  worn 
and  wearied  champions  of  honesty  looked  round  with  par 
donable  exultation  upon  the  blank  faces  of  a  bought  and 
beaten  Assembly. — S.  F.  Examiner. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  497 

LAKE    TAIIOE. 

[HE  editor  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Times,  who  has 
recently  visited  Lake  Tahoe,  gives  the  following 
well-written  and  exceedingly  interesting  de 
scription  of  it  [Editor  San  Franoisco  Bulletin, 
November  16,  1867]  :- 

Lake  Tahoe  burst  upon  our  vision  in  all  its 
magnificence  and  beauty.  Among  the  Indians  the  name  of 
this  lake  is  still  a  matter  of  dispute.  Some  of  them  contend 
that  Lake  Tahoe  is,  properly  speaking,  Was-Soo  Lake,  and 
that  the  lake  in  Washoe  Valley,  twelve  miles  from  the 
northern  shore  of  Tahoe,  is  Tule,  and  not  Washoe.  Tule, 
in  Indian,  is  pronounced  like  Sawyer,  or,  as  they  are  sup 
posed  to  spell  it,  Tsau-er.  It  is  certainly  true  that  the  lake 
in  Washoe  Valley  is  surrounded  with  tules,  which  un 
doubtedly  gives  rise  to  the  supposition  in  respect  to  it  on 
the  part  of  the  Indians.  The  Indians  say  that  Tahoe  means 
big  lake,  while  those  who  have  a  smattering  of  the  Indian 
tongue  insist  that  its  significance  is  deep  water  ;  and  others, 
again,  say  it  means  fish  lake.  But  what' s  in  a  name,  comes 
with  peculiar  force  in  connection  with  the  subject  of  which 
we  write  ;  for  even  if  this  lake  never  had  a  name,  even  if  it 
had  one  with  each  change  of  the  moon,  or  if  eternity  should 
surround  it,  and  it  should  flow  back  into  the  channels  of 
the  unknown,  it  could  never  add  to  or  detract  from  its 
glorious  beauties,  grandeur,  and  magnificence  ;  for,  when 
the  Saviour  of  men  went  up  on  to  the  mountain-top  and 
wept,  it  seems  that  at  such  a  spot,  where  so  much  holy 
beauty  and  purity  dwells,  his  tears  must  have  flowed. 
Such  glory  of  scenery,  situation,  and  beneficial  results 
could  not  have  been  placed  there  except  by  divine  hands. 
We  have  seen  paintings  of  this  lake  by  artists  of  natural 
and  acquired  ability,  who  love  their  art  and  study  to  make 
it  perfect,  but  when  you  come  to  contrast  them  with  the 
grand  reality,  it  does  not  take  the  eye  of  a  connoisseur  to 
detect  the  defects.  Descriptions,  too,  fail  to  convey  the 
true  loveliness  of  the  spot,  and  although  we,  in  common 
with  those  who  are  fortunate  enough  to  have  the  leisure  to 

32 


498  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

linger  on  its  shore,  enter  the  list  to  place  our  humble  tribute 
to  its  merits  on  record,  yet  those  who  come  after  us  will  say, 
"How  far  wide  of  the  mark  he  came  I1' 

When  we  first  saw  this  lake,  we  thought  of  all  the  differ 
ent  scenes  of  land  and  water  view  which  we  had  ever  visited, 
and  none  could  compare  in  beauty  to  that  before  us,  except 
Niagara,  though  the  beauty  of  the  falls  and  the  lake  are  dis 
similar — the  former  stormy  and  gigantic  in  its  grandeur, 
while  the  latter  is  as  peaceful  and  placid  as  an  infant's 
smile,  though  at  times  it  is  something  like  an  infant  in  the 
suddenness  of  its  squalls.  Here,  at  an  altitude  of  6,218  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  ocean,  reposing  in  the  strong  embrace 
of  dark  and  frowning  mountains  and  laving  the  feet  of  craggy 
hills,  lies  a  sheet  of  water,  from  the  lovely  bosom  of  which 
the  roughest  nature  might  draw  inspiration.  It  is  in  the 
form  of  a  parallelogram,  the  lines  on  the  northern  and 
southern  shore  being  distinct  and  similar.  It  lies  north  and 
south,  or,  more  closely  speaking,  a  little  northeast  and 
southwest.  It  is  twenty- three  miles  in  length  and  fifteen  in 
width.  The  water  is  tri-colored,  if  we  may  use  the  expres 
sion  in  connection  with  it.  For  half  a  mile  from  the  shore 
(which  is  of  a  soft,  fine  sandy  beach),  the  color  is  a  most 
beautiful  pea-green,  tinged  with  blue,  and  as  clear  as 
crystal,  objects  on  the  bottom  being  as  distinct  as  if  imme 
diately  before  you.  For  half  a  mile  farther  it  changes  to  a 
green  about  two  shades  darker,  still  with  the  bluish  tinge, 
but  as  clear  as  before.  One  can  hardly  imagine  that  the 
bottom  is  so  far  removed,  as  it  looks  as  if  it  could  be  stood 
on  with  the  head  out  of  the  water.  From  the  last  color  it 
changes  instantaneously  to  the  deepest  color  of  indigo  blue. 
The  density  of  this  color  is  wonderful,  but  the  lines  of  the 
three  colors  are  as  distinctly  drawn  across  the  lake,  from 
north  to  south,  as  if  painted  there,  and  when  the  sun  shines 
upon  it  in  the  afternoon,  they  are  more  distinct  than  at  any 
other  time.  The  water  of  the  lake  is  purity  itself,  but  on 
account  of  the  highly  rarefied  state  of  the  air  it  is  not  very 
buoyant,  and  swimmers  find  some  little  fatigue ;  or,  in  other 
words,  they  are  compelled  to  keep  swimming  all  the  time 
they  are  in  the  water. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  499 

The  depth,  of  the  water  is  very  deceptive.  From  the 
northern  shore,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  from  the  southern 
shore,  a  person  may  wade  a  long  distance  and  not  find  it 
above  the  chin,  but  it  makes  depth  very  quickly.  Measuring 
from  the  latter  point,  just  at  the  confluence  of  the  dark  green 
and  blue  line,  the  water  is  81  feet  in  depth,  and  immediately 
(the  distance  between  the  two  soundings  being  almost  im 
perceptible)  it  falls  to  a  depth  of  269  feet ;  then  593  feet ;  at 
a  farther  distance,  953  feet ;  and  at  a  distance  of  above  three 
miles  from  the  shore,  1,253  feet,  with  a  hard,  sandy  bottom. 
These  soundings  were  taken  from  south  to  north,  and,  after 
the  last  was  obtained,  there  were  fifteen  taken,  one  mile 
apart,  with  the  following  result : — 1,294  feet,  bottom  sandy  ; 
1,415  feet,  fine  mud  ;  1,432  feet,  fine  mud  and  sand;  1,499, 
1,494,  1,478,  and  1,488  feet,  fine  mud  bottom.  The  greatest 
depth  found,  with  a  bottom  the  same  as  the  last,  1,523  feet, 
then  1,521  feet,  with  the  samo  bottom.  The  depth  was  then 
1,242  feet,  with  a  bottom  of  rock  and  mud;  560  feet,  sand 
and  mud ;  83  feet,  rock  and  sand  ;  48  feet,  gravel ;  23  feet, 
sand,  rock,  and  bowlder  bottom,  the  bowlders  being  clearly 
discernible  at  a  depth  of  81  feet.  The  soundings,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  do  away  with  the  idea  that  the  lake  is  bottomless  ; 
and,  although  the  greatest  depth  is  impenetrable  and  of  a 
sufficiency  to  drown,  there  is  a  feeling  of  pleasure  (!)  to  think 
that,  though  one  may  never  return  above  from  an  involun 
tary  exploration  of  its  hidden  depths,  the  body  will  have  a 
resting-place,  however  "lowly"  it  may  be. 

The  scenery  around  Lake  Tahoe  is  unexcelled  in  mag 
nificence.  Standing  on  its  southern  shore,  listening  to  the 
regular  beat  of  the  surf,  as  the  ceaseless  motion  of  the  water 
would  cause  it  to  advance  and  retreat,  watching  the  light 
and  graceful  boats  as  they  shoot  across  its  dangerous  depths ; 
the  receding  sun  arrayed  in  all  the  gorgeousness  of  his 
evening  drapery,  and  as  the  shades  of  night  commenced 
their  gradual  approach,  no  scene  could  have  been  more 
entertaining.  To  the  west,  the  cold  and  sterile  mountains 
rose  in  majesty,  their  tops  covered  with  eternal  snow, 
fringed  with  a  slight  blush  from  the  red  clouds  above,  and 
resting  against  the  sky,  with  a  profile  so  clear  and  well 


500  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

defined  as  if  cut  with  a  sculptor' s  chisel.  To  the  north  and 
east,  mountain  and  hill  rose  up,  as  if  on  guard  to  protect 
the  beauties  of  the  place,  and  thick  forests  of  fir,  balsam, 
pine,  and  oak  trees,  like  regiments,  straight  and  luxuriant, 
marched  almost  to  the  sandy  beach  with  full  ranks. 

One,  two,  or  three  views  of  the  splendors  of  the  place  will 
not  suffice,  and  to  us  this  was  practically  demonstrated  on 
this  our  second  visit.  New  beauties  constantly  unfold 
themselves,  and  although  it  may  be  thought  that  one  glance 
comprehends  it  all,  the  looker-on  is  astonished  at  the  fresh 
ness  of  the  scene,  and  wonders  that  he  neglected  to  look  at 
the  new  point  of  beauty  when  there  before.  At  times  a  gentle 
breeze  wafts  across  the  bosom  of  the  lake,  but  at  others  its 
surface  is  as  fretful  as  an  unruly  child.  The  waters  become 
agitated,  the  white-crested  waves  dance  and  sparkle,  and  all 
the  wondrous  mysteries  of  the  storm-tossed  ocean  are  in 
miniature  here.  Sudden  gusts  of  wind  sweep  down  through 
the  narrow  gorges  and  across  the  lake,  and  the  quick  eye  of 
the  good  sailor  convinces  him  that  all  sail  must  be  taken  in. 
Happy  excursionists,  when  starting,  wonder,  as  they  move 
across  the  ' '  deep,  deep  blue, ' '  whether  the  ' '  white  water ' ' 
will  be  reached  before  the  wind  gets  to  be  very  severe. 
We  must  confess  to  a  little  fear  at  the  deep  blue  water.  It 
is  so  impenetrable — so  mysterious  looking — so  reserved  and 
unsocial.  It  reflects  back  no  sparkle  of  the  eye,  or  lineament 
of  the  face ;  but  it  is  deep  and  fearful  in  the  density  of 
color.  About  three-quarters  of  Lake  Tahoe  lies  in  Cali 
fornia,  running  to  within  four  miles  of  the  southeast  end  of 
the  lake,  the  balance  being  in  the  State  of  Nevada.  The 
trout  have  not  been  very  plentiful  this  season,  probably 
arising  from  the  fact  that  the  Indians  spear  them  as  they  are 
in  the  very  act  of  spawning.  This  drives  both  the  male  and 
female  away,  and  the  trout  seek  the  deep  water,  and  seldom 
come  in  view.  The  law  in  regard  to  this  matter  should  be 
stringent,  or  Tahoe,  as  a  trouting  lake,  will  become  obsolete. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  501 

ORIGIN    OF   DAY   AND   MARTINIS    BLACKING. 

;NE  afternoon  Day,  then  a  poor  workman,  was 
drinking  his  mug  of  half-and-half  in  a  London 
ale-house,  when  a  poor  and  ragged  individual 
entered,  and  addressing  himself  to  those  present, 
said: 

"  Who  will  give  me  a  pint  of  ale  for  a  good  recipe  for 
blacking?" 

"  I  will,"  said  Day,  and  he  ordered  the  pint  of  ale  for  the 
new-comer. 

"  Now  let  us  have  it,"  said  he,  and  his  new  friend  gave 
him  the  desired  document. 

"  Good  !"  said  Day  ;  "now  I  will  give  you  another  pint," 
which  the  unknown  drank  and  then  took  his  leave. 

The  next  morning  Day  sought  one  of  his  friends,  a  com 
mercial  traveler  named  Martin,  and  showed  him  the  recipe. 
They  made  a  quantity  of  the  blacking,  and  filled  all  the  old 
bottles  they  could  obtain  with  the  mixture. 

This  done,  a  friend  of  the  partners  went  to  all  the  grocers 
and  blacking  merchants  of  London,  and  addressed  to  each 
one  the  question,  "Have  you  Day  &  Martin's  blacking?" 

And  all  the  shopkeepers,  naturally  enough,  answered, 
"No." 

The  next  day  another  friend  went  the  rounds,  and  to  each 
merchant  he  propounded  what  his  predecessor  had  done, 
and  in  each  case  he  received  the  same  answer. 

The  next  day  another  friend  went  to  each  merchant,  but 
this  time  the  question  was,  "Would  you  like  to  buy  some 
of  Day  &  Martin's  blacking?" 

And  all  the  merchants  answered,  "  Willingly."  And  the 
fortune  of  the  house  of  Day  &  Martin  was  made.  They 
adopted  for  their  labels  the  picture  of  a  cat  enraged  at 
seeing  his  image  reflected  in  the  polished  surface  of  a  boot, 
as  in  a  mirror,  and  this  label  has  become  world  famous.  It 
only  remains  to  be  said  that  Day,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
daughter's  marriage,  was  enabled  to  give  her  as  a  wedding 
gift,  the  nice  little  sum  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars, 


502  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

which  was  a  good  deal  in  those  days. — Translated  from 
the  Paris  Temps. 


THE    RUBY    HEART. 

UNDER  a  fragrant  blossom-bell 
A  tiny  Fairy  once  did  dwell, 
The  moss  was  bright  about  her  feet, 
Her  little  face  was  fair  and  sweet, 
Her  form  in  rainbow  hues  was  clad, 
And  yet  the  Fairy's  soul  was  sad ; 
For,  of  the  Elves  that  round  her  moved, 
And  in  the  yellow  moonlight  roved, 
There  was  no  spirit  that  she  loved. 

Many  a  one  there  was,  I  ween, 
Among  the  sprites  that  danced  the  green, 
Whose  hands  were  warm  to  clasp  her  own, 
And  voices  kindly  in  their  tone ; 
But  love,  the  fondest  and  the  best, 
Awaked  no  answer  in  her  breast : 
Her  heart  unmoved  within  her  slept — 
And  "  I  can  never  love  !"  she  wept. 

She  taught  herself  a  quaint  old  song, 
And  crooned  it  over  all  day  long  : 

"  He  prayeth  best  who  lovest  best 
All  things,  both  great  and  small ; 

For  that  clear  God  that  loveth  us, 
He  made  and  loveth  all." 

"  But  I,"  she  said,  "  can  never  pray, 
Nor  to  his  mansions  find  the  way, 
For  he  will  suffer  not,  I  know, 
A  creature  unto  him  to  0:0 

O 

Who  has  not  loved  his  world  below." 

Slow  wandering  by  the  brook  alone, 
She  chose  a  pure  white  pebble-stone, 
And  carved  it,  sitting  there  apart, 
Into  a  little  marble  heart ; 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  503 

She  hung  it  by  her  mossy  bed — 

"  My  heart  will  never  love,"  she  said, 

"  Till  this  white  stone  turns  ruby  red." 

One  night  a  moonbeam  smote  her  face 
And  wakened  her,  and  in  its  place 
There  stood  an  angel  full  of  grace. 
"  Dear  child,"  he  said,  "  from  far  above 
I  come  to  teach  thee  how  to  love. 
Do  every  day  some  little  deed 
Of  kindness,  some  faint  creature  feed, 
Make  some  hurt  spirit  cease  to  bleed; 
Then  carve  the  record  fair,  at  night, 
Upon  thy  heart  of  marble  white. 
Each  word  shall  turn  so  ruby  red, 
And  so  much  of  thy  task  be  sped ; 
For  when  the  whole  is  ruddied  o'er, 
Thy  bosom  shall  be  cold  no  more ; 
The  souls  thy  careless  thoughts  contemn 
Shall  win  thee  by  thy  deeds  to  them.'1'1 

Upon  the  sorrowful  Fairy  broke 
Like  sudden  sunshine  this  new  hope. 
Each  day  to  some  one's  door  she  took 
A  kindly  act,  or  word,  or  look, 
Whose  record,  fairly  carved  at  night, 
Blushed  out  upon  the  stony  white  \ 
Till,  somehow,  wondrously  there  grew 
More  grace  in  every  one  she  knew — 
Each  little  ugliness  concealed, 
Each  goodness  more  and  more  revealed — 
As,  when  you  watch  the  twilight  through, 
The  sky  seems  one  pure  empty  blue, 
Till  o'er  the  paling  sunset  bars, 
Suddenly  'tis  one  sweep  of  stars ! 

So,  day  by  day,  she  found  herself 

Grow  kindlier  to  each  little  elf; 

Yea,  even  to  the  birds  and  bees, 

And  slender  now'rets  round  her  knees; 

The  very  moss-buds  at  her  feet 

She  came  with  warmer  smile  to  greet, 


504  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Till  now,  at  last,  her  marble  heart 
Was  ruddy,  save  one  little  part 
That  gleamed  all  snowy  as  of  old 
In  the  still  moonbeams,  white  and  cold. 

Her  task  was  almost  done — she  knelt 
And  hid  her  glad  wet  eyes  and  felt 
Her  soul's  first  prayer  steal  up  to  God, 
Like  spring's  first  violet  from  the  sod. 
Through  all  her  being  softly  stole 
Such  joy  of  gratitude,  her  soul 
Brimmed  over  like  a  brimming  cup — 
And  then  a  voice  said,  "  Child,  look  up  !" 
And  lo !  the  stone  above  her  head 
Was  a  pure  ruby,  starry  red ; 
And  down  among  the  flowers  there  flew 
Brushing  aside  the  moonlit  dew, 
A  little,  snowy,  elfin  dove, 
And  nestled  on  her  breast,  to  prove 
Sweet  trust  in  one  whose  heart  was  love. 

E.  R.  SILL. 


EARLY    SCENES    IX    CALIFORNIA. 


THE    SHAM    DUEL. 


REKA,  in  its  youthful  days,  like  most  juveniles 
born  to  plenty  of  money  and  few  cares,  was  a 
most  hilarious  village.  Free  fights  were  com 
mon,  and  the  soft  notes  of  Colt's  persuaders 
often  echoed  along  the -streets  and  among  the 
board  houses.  But,  if  the  boys  were  rough, 
and  would  fight  sometimes,  they  now  and  then,  by  way  of 
rarity,  got  up  some  rich  scenes.  Here  is  one  of  them  : — 

One  morning,  in  the  summer  of  185 — ,  it  was  whispered 
that  Tim  and  Tucker,  two  old  friends,  both  men  of  well- 
tried,  and,  hereabouts,  undoubted  courage,  had  fallen  out 
the  night  before,  and  were  then  prepared  to  fight  a  duel, 
at  ten  o'clock,  on  the  hill  just  east  of  town  ;  distance, 
ten  paces ;  weapons,  shot-guns,  loaded  with  six-shooter 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  505 

balls.  Now,  for.  the  benefit  of  weak  nerves,  we  will  say 
here,  in  the  outset,  that  the  thing  was  made  up — a  sham — 
understood  by  but  very  few,  and  of  those  few  were  not 
selected  the  friends  who  were  to  act  as  seconds.  With 
these  worthies  it  was  to  be  a  fight  only  too  real— a  fight  to 
the  death — and  they  made  their  preparation  accordingly.  As 
the  hour  approached  for  the  duel,  not  less  than  five  hundred 
honest  miners  gathered  on  the  hill  selected  as  the  bloody 
field.  The  seconds,  with  their  principals,  appeared  ;  the 
ground  was  measured  off,  the  men  took  their  positions,  the 
word  was  given,  and  both  men  fired  simultaneously.  The 
five  hundred  pale  faces  turned,  if  possible,  still  more  ashy. 
Tim  was  unharmed.  Tucker  stood  for  an  instant,  then 
struck  his  hand  heavily  on  his  breast,  in  the  locality  of 
which  he  had  secreted  a  bladder,  filled  with  a  blood-colored 
fluid,  burst  the  bladder,  and  what  the  five  hundred  pale  faces 
could  have  taken  their  book  oath  was  his  life' s  crimson,  gush 
ed  in  copious  quantities  from  his  breast,  and  over  his  neck 
and  face.  The  death- stricken  man  fell  heavily  to  the  ground. 
He  was  carried  into  a  house  near  by,  gasped  heavily  a  few 
times,  and',  to  outsiders,  died.  The  spectators  were  horri 
fied.  Tim  had  disappeared.  Some  one,  not  an  outsider, 
cried:  "  Let's  hang  Tim's  second."  That  individual  was 
just  leaving  the  field,  but  not  so  far  away  but  that  he  over 
heard  the  remark  and  the  angry  assent  of  the  now  thorough 
ly  excited  crowd.  He  broke,  rushed  breathless  into  town  ; 
ran  to  a  friend  who  kept  a  livery-stable.  Friend  hid  him 
away  in  the  hay.  The  search  began  to  grow  close  and 
warm.  Friend,  who  had  in  the  last  few  moments  been  let 
into  the  secret,  advised  him  to  escape,  as  he  could  not  longer 
conceal  his  hiding-place.  But  how  ?— and  where  ?  The 
town  was  full  of  angry  and  terribly  excited  men,  determined 
upon  his  death.  A  plan  of  escape  was  matured.  A  woman' s 
dress  was  procured,  also  an  old-fashioned  Leghorn  bonnet, 
of  the  hugest  dimensions.  Into  these  the  trembling  second 
was  told  to  get  himself  in  the  shortest  possible'  time,  and 
without  paying  too  much  attention  to  the  details  of  his 
toilet.  A  horse  and  side-saddle  stood  ready  ;  the  radiating 
fringes  of  the  Leghorn  were  pressed  so  near  together,  and 


506  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

held  so  by  a  handkerchief,  that  the  lady's  focus  of  vision 
on  the  world  outside  of  the  bonnet  was  limited  to  about  two 
inches,  and  that  directly  over  the  point  of  his  nose.  With 
much  ado  he  was  seated  in  the  saddle,  lady  wise,  but  almost 
instantly  unseated  and  flat  on  his  back  in  the  street,  owing 
to  the  insertion  of  an  old  boot  under  the  horse' s  tail,  by  the 
stable-keeper,  which  caused  the  animal  to  make  a  sudden, 
and,  to  the  rider,  unexpected  jump  of  eight  or  ten  feet. 
Not  much  hurt,  he  was  again  mounted,  and,  in  company 
with  a  friend  on  another  horse,  that  could  go,  he  set  out  on 
the  keen  run,  just  as  an  officer  on  horseback  appeared 
around  the  corner.  Tarn  O'Shanter's  moonlight  ride  was 
nothing  to  that  race.  It  was  terrific.  The  wild  yell  of  the 
crowd  of  "  There  he  goes !"  the  firing  of  their  pistols,  and 
clattering  hoofs  of  his  pursuer' s  horse,  were  motives  amply 
sufficient  to  induce  the  second  to  urge  his  animal  to  the 
highest  possible  point  of  speed  consistent  with  his  maintain 
ing  his  seat  on  the  lady's  saddle.  On  they  went,  the  pur 
suer  and  the  pursued,  each  intent  on  accomplishing  a  single 
object — the  one  to  capture  and  the  other  to  escape.  For 
three  miles  this  terrible  race  continued  ;  then,  as  they  near- 
ed  the  foot  of  a  rugged  mountain,  and  the  officer  was  grad 
ually  gaining  on  them,  the  friend  advised  the  fugitive  to 
leave  his  horse  and  trust  to  the  bush.  This  was  no  time 
for  holding  a  council — promptness  was  the  word.  He 
sprang  from  his  horse  and  struck  out  up  the  mountain- side, 
over  rocks  and  through  the  densest  kind  of  chaparral.  The 
officer  fired  several  shots  in  the  direction  of  the  retreating 
Leghorn,  and  cried,  "Stop  !"  But  it  didn't  stop.  On  the 
contrary,  if  such  a  thing  could  be  possible,  it  accelerated 
its  get-up  the  mountain  proclivity.  In  short,  he  traveled 
fast,  without  regard  to  the  preservation  of  his  feminine 
apparel,  small  bits  of  which,  as  long  as  it  lasted,  fluttered 
from  every  bush.  He  was  last  seen  half  a  mile  up  the 
mountain-side,  still  going  it,  minus  dress,  coat,  pants,  or 
any  thing  else,  except  the  crown  of  the  Leghorn.  The 
officer  and  friend  rode  back  to  town  ;  the  ruse  was  explain 
ed,  and  everybody,  including  Tucker,  took  a  drink.  But 
the  poor  second  was  kept  in  the  mountains  six  weeks ;  arid 


ITFI7BESIT7 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  507 

when  at  last  he  did  return,  he  looked  as  though  he  had 
lived  on  pine  bark  for  a  twelvemonth. — S.  F.  Weekly  Mer 
cury. 


THE    GREAT    SHOSHONE    FALLS    OF    IDAHO. 


NAKE  RIVER  is  the  south  fork  of  the  Colum 
bia,  having  the  alternate  name  of  Lewis  River, 
named  after  Lewis,  one  of  the  early  pioneers 
who  came  w^est  by  way  of  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains,  following  the  course  of  the  river  to  the 
point  at  which  it  empties  into  the  Columbia. 
Snake  River  rises  in  the  Rocky  Mountains,  near  Fremont'  s 
Peak,  on  the  Dakota  line,  flowing  800  miles  through  south 
ern  Idaho  in  a  general  westerly  course,  thence  north  150 
miles,  forming  the  boundary  line  between  Idaho  and  Ore 
gon,  receiving  as  tributaries  the  Boise,  Owyhee,  Salmon, 
and  Clearwater  rivers,  besides  numerous  smaller  streams, 
finally  uniting  with  the  north  fork  of  Clark'  s  River  to  form 
the  great  Columbia. 

The  valley  of  the  Snake  lies  along  an  almost  direct  line 
from  the  South  Pass  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  in  early 
days  it  furnished  the  most  practicable  route  overland  to  the 
Pacific.  In  its  descent  over  the  elevated  plains  of  Idaho, 
about  400  miles  from  whence  it  takes  its  rise  in  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  Snake  River  forms  the  great  Shoshone  Falls. 
The  river  here  runs  through  a  narrow,  rocky  gorge,  which 
widens  and  terminates  abruptly  in  precipitous  cliffs,  the 
summits  of  which  are  about  1,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
rapids,  and  so  steep  that  the  traveler  can  descend  at  only 
one  point  —  an  old  Indian  trail,  its  numerous  windings 
making  it  about  a  mile  in  length.  Following  this  trail 
slowly  and  carefully,  the  tourist  will  in  due  time  find  him 
self  standing  upon  the  banks  of  the  river,  on  a  level  with 
the  rapids  and  overlooking  the  falls.  The  width  of  the  river 
at  this  point  has  been  variously  estimated  —  we  thought  it 
at  least  200  yards.  The  rapids  here  form  a  series  of  cas- 


508  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

cades,  ranging  from  30  to  60  feet  each  in  height,  and  just 
below  them,  the  river,  in  one  unbroken  mass,  leaps  210  feet 
into  the  bottomless  pit  below.     The  course  of  the  river  at 
this  point  is  almost  due  east  and  west ;  the  contour  of  the 
falls  is  that  of  an  irregular  horse-shoe,  and  their  width, 
following  the  course  of  the  water,  is  at  least  400  yards. 
Although  the  river  is  not  quite  as  wide  at  this  point  as  the 
Niagara  River,  the  falls  are  higher  and  quite  as  beautiful. 
The  most  complete  view  of  the  falls,  including  the  river 
above  and  below  the  rapids,  cliffs,  and  surrounding  scenery, 
is  obtained  from  Lookout  Point.    Lookout  Point  is  a  narrow 
cape  of  rocks  projecting  from  the  main  bluff,  about  300 
yards  lower  down  on  the  river  than  the  falls,  so  narrow 
that  two  persons  can  not  walk  abreast.     Care  and  caution 
should  be  exercised  in  going  to  the  extremity  of  this  point 
— the  very  timid  or  over-bold  should  never  attempt  it — a 
slip  of  the  foot  would  in  a  moment  precipitate  one  300  feet 
into  the  raging  torrent  below. 

Standing  upon  this  point,  we  will  endeavor  to  name  the 
prominent  places  of  interest.  The  lirst  object  which  attracts 
our  attention  is  Eagle  Rock,  a  perpendicular  pillar  of  rock 
about  100  feet  in  height,  rising  from  the  midst  of  the  rapids, 
50  yards  from  the  south  bank  of  the  river,  and  almost  over 
hanging  the  main  cataract.  Upon  the  topmost  peak  of  this 
rock  an  American  eagle  has  built  his  eyrie,  a  fitting  home 
for  our  noble  national  bird— long  may  he  live  to  occupy  his 
unique  and  romantic  abode !  Just  above,  and  about  the 
center  of  the  cataract,  is  Ballard  Island,  a  small  rocky 
island,  covered  with  cedar  and  juniper  trees.  Several 
smaller  islands,  to  the  right  and  left  of  the  large  one,  or 
Ballard  Island,  add  to  the  beauty  and  picturesqueness  of 
the  scene. 

The  Two  Sentinels— two  huge  rocky  pillars— are,  one  on 
the  north,  the  other  on  the  south  side,  overlooking  the  falls, 
and  reminding  one  of  grim  sentinels  guarding  their  post. 
Lower  down  the  river,  and  from  a  higher  standpoint,  one 
can  obtain  a  fine  panoramic  view  of  the  whole— the  falls, 
the  foaming  rapids,  Eagle  Rock,  the  Two  Sentinels,  the  pic 
turesque  islands,  the  huge  pillars  of  perpetual  spray  rising 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP  BOOK.  509 

from  the  bottom  and  near  the  center  of  the  cataract,  but 
extending  as  it  rises  to  either  side,  and  made  beautiful  by 
the  many-colored  rainbows  which  shed  a  halo  of  glory  upon 
the  whole  scene.  Still  lower  down  the  river  is  Prospect 
Gulch.  Several  gentlemen  of  the  party,  actuated  by  the 
spirit  of  adventure,  determined  to  attempt,  through  this 
gulch,  to  reach  the  river  below  the  falls.  They  lowered 
themselves  fifty  feet  on  a  rope  down  the  perpendicular 
sides  of  a  rocky  cliff.  Reaching  firm  ground,  they  managed 
with  but  little  difficulty  to  scramble  down,  about  500  feet,  to 
the  banks  of  the  river.  Arriving  there,  they  found  that  their 
troubles  had  just  begun ;  they  were  600  yards  from  the 
falls,  to  reach  which  their  path  lay  around  and  sometimes 
over  huge  bowlders  of  slippery  rocks,  winding  along  the 
foot  of  the  steep  banks,  and  then  through  the  foaming  and 
boiling  waters,  the  heavy  swells  of  which  reminded  them 
strikingly  of  the  breakers  on  the  sea- shore.  Finally  they 
reached  a  point  about  30  feet  from  the  falls.  Their  j  ourney 
here  came  to  an  abrupt  termination  by  the  shelving  of  the 
rocks  into  deep  water.  The  wind  struck  this  point  with 
such  violence  that  they  feared  to  trust  themselves  in  an  erect 
posture.  On  their  knees,  they  held  with  their  hands  to  the 
overhanging  brush,  to  prevent  being  blown  into  the  river. 
We  think  that  one  can  not  fully  comprehend  the  immen 
sity  of  the  sheet  of  water  and  the  sublimity  of  the  scene 
until  he  can  gaze  upward  as  we  did.  This  point  is  the 
Cave  of  the  Winds.  The  Shoshone  Falls,  as  a  whole,  will 
compare  favorably  with  Niagara.  Those  of  our  party  who 
have  seen  both  places,  pronounce  the  former  superior  in 
many  respects.  In  beauty  and  wildness  of  scenery,  the 
Shoshone  can  not  be  surpassed.  Niagara  excels  in  magni 
tude  only. — Oregon  Statesman,  August,  1868. 


510  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

A    HISTORICAL    BEAUTY. 

I  AN  A  of  Poictiers  was  born  March  31,  1500. 
She  married,  in  1521,  Louis  de  Breze,  Grand 
Marshal  of  Normandy,  and  by  him  had  two 
daughters.  She  must  have  been  thirty-five 
years  of  age  when  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  after 
ward  Henry  the  Second  of  France,  at  the  age  of  seventeen, 
became  deeply  attached  to  her,  and  she  attained  her  ascend 
ancy  over  him,  in  1559,  at  the  age  of  fifty-six,  retaining  her 
beauty  to  the  last.  Miss  Pardee  thus  describes  her  :— 

u  Her  features  were  regular  and  classical,  her  complexion 
faultless,  her  hair  of  a  rich  purple  black,  which  took  a 
golden  tint  in  the  sunshine,  while  her  teeth,  her  ankles,  her 
hands  and  arms,  and  her  bust,  were  each  in  turn  the  theme 
of  the  court  poets.  That  the  extraordinary  and  almost 
fabulous  duration  of  her  beauty  was  in  a  great  measure  due 
to  the  precautions  which  she  adopted,  there  can  be  little 
doubt,  for  she  spared  no  effort  to  rescue  it.  She  was  jeal 
ously  careful  of  her  health,  and  in  the  most  severe  weather 
bathed  in  cold  water.  She  suffered  no  cosmetic  to  approach 
her,  denouncing  every  compound  of  the  kind  as  worthy 
only  of  those  to  whom  nature  had  been  so  niggardly  as  to 
compel  them  to  complete  her  imperfect  work.  She  rose 
every  morning  at  six  o'  clock,  and  no  sooner  left  her  cham 
ber  than  she  sprang  into  her  saddle  ;  and  after  having  gal 
loped  a  league  or  two,  returned  to  bed,  where  she  remained, 
until  midday,  engaged  in  reading.  The  system  appears  a 
singular  one,  but  in  her  case  it  proved  successful,  as,  after 
having  enslaved  the  Duke  d'  Orleans  in  her  thirty-fifth  year, 
she  still  reigned  in  absolute  sovereignty  over  the  heart  of 
the  King  of  France  when  she  had  nearly  reached  the  age  of 
sixty.  It  was  certain,  however,  that  the  magnificent  Diana 
owed  no  small  portion  of  this  extraordinary  and  unpre 
cedented  constancy  to  the  charms  of  her  mind  and  the  bril 
liancy  of  her  intellect." 

"  Six  months  before  her  death,  I  saw  her  so  handsome," 
says  Brantome,  "  that  no  heart  of  adamant  could  have  been 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  511 

insensible  to  her  charms,  though  she  had  some  time  before 
broken  one  of  her  limbs  upon  the  payed  stones  of  Orleans. 
She  had  been  riding  on  horseback,  and  kept  her  seat  as 
dexterously  and  well  as  she  had  ever  done.  One  would 
have  thought  that  the  pain  of  such  an  accident  would  have 
made  some  alteration  in  her  lovely  face  ;  but  this  was  not 
the  case— she  was  as  beautiful,  graceful,  and  handsome  in 
every  respect  as  she  ever  had  been." 

She  was  the  only  mistress  whose  medal  was  struck.  This 
was  done  by  the  city  of  Lyons,  where  the  duchess  was 
much  beloved.  On  one  side  was  her  effigy,  with  this  in 
scription  :  "Diana  Dux  Valentinorum  Clarissima ;"  and  on 
the  reverse,  "OnmiamVictorum  Vica"  ("  I  have  conquered 
the  conqueror  of  all"),  alluding  to  Henry  the  Second. 


THE  SOLDIER'S  FAREWELL. 

FOR  so  many  years  "the  glory  of  France"  has  been 
such  a  purely  military  glory— the  greatest  of  modern  French 
men  was  so  entirely  a  great  soldier,  that  in  any  French 
song-book  the  most  melodious  and  touching  songs  are  gen 
erally  of  the  camp.  The  "Pen  soumens-tuT '  of  the  two 
French  veterans  of  the  Guard,  sung  to  the  German  melody 
of  "Denkst  du  daran?"  is  familiar  to  all  lovers  of  that 
kind  of  song.  And  here  a  friend  sends  a  pleasant  and  skill 
ful  rendering  of  Le  dernier  adieu  du  soldat,  a  military 
ballad,  which  is  introduced  in  Charles  Lever's  "Jack 
Hinton."  The  mingling  of  jest  and  pathos  is  entirely 
characteristic. 

The  original  begins  :— 

"  Rose !  1'intention  d'la  presente, 
Est  de  t'informer  d'ma  sante, 
L'armee  Franchise  est  triomphantc 
Et  moi,  j'ai  1'bras  gauche  emposte*." 


512  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


THE    SOLDIER  S    FAREWELL. 

Dear  Rose,  to  you  I  send  this  present  writing 

To  let  you  know  how  goes  the  world  with  me  ; 
Our  gallant  boys  have  done  some  glorious  fighting, 

A  left  arm  lost,  alas  !  has  done  for  me. 
We've  great  successes  on  our  track  advancing, 

The  cruel  grape  has  taken  my  poor  hones ; 
We've  sacked  whole  cities,  but  a  spent  ball  glancing 

Pays  me  my  share  of  booty  in  my  groans. 

From  an  old  hospital  this  word  I'm  sending, 

To  leave  it  soon  at  Death's  call  for  the  grave ; 
I  send  ten  francs  from  him  who  does  my  mending, 

For  them  I've  sold  the  body  he  can't  save! 
I  send  the  pieces,  for  I'm  just  now  thinking 

That  if  to-night  must  see  me  in  the  earth, 
I  can't  do  less  for  one  whom  love's  been  linking 

So  close  to  me  than  give  her  all  Tm  worth. 

My  poor  old  mother,  when  I  left  her  crying, 

Was  nearly  gone  and  looking  close  on  death, 
I've  writ  a  line  to  tell  her  I  am  dying, 

But  I  do  hope  she's  taken  her  last  breath. 
For  if  the  dear  old  woman  still  is  living, 

Her  heart's  so  soft  that  if  she  hears  I'm  gone 
She  can  not  stay,  and  I  shall  death  be  giving 

To  her  who  gave  me  life,  now  left  alone. 

My  little  Rose,  there's  one  old  friend  I  cherish 

You  won't  desert — my  good  old  dog,  I  mean  ; 
He  mustn't  know  I'm  dead — for  sure  he'd  perish 

If  he  but  thought  of  me  the  last  he'd  seen. 
He's  looking  now  to  see  me  home  returning, 

At  least  a  corporal,  if  not  something  more ; 
Then  guard  him  well,  and  keep  the  dog  from  learning 

I  died,  a  private,  on  this  earthen  floor. 

It  cuts  me  to  the  heart  to  think  of  dying 

Far  from  the  village  and  from  you,  my  Rose; 

No  chance  to  say  good-night  to  friends,  or,  sighing, 
To  press  your  hand  before  my  eyelids  close. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


513 


At  home  they'd  soon  my  shattered  bones  be  laying 
Hard  by  the  church — a  cross  above  my  head, 

And  there  my  Rose  would  sometimes  come,  and,  praying 
Ask  God  to  keep  him  whom  she  loved  though  dead. 

Then  good-bye,  Rose,  good-bye,  and  don't  be  weeping; 

Farewell !  farewell !     I'll  see  you,  dear,  no  more ; 
For  in  the  company  I'll  soon  be  keeping 

They  give  no  furloughs,  though  you  beg  them  sore. 
All's  turning  round — I  feel  I'm  just  departing, 

I've  £ot  my  orders  and  must  leave  you  here  ; 
Good-night,  good-night !— One  last  word  before  starting  ; 

God  bless  you,  Rose,  and  don't  forget  me,  dear ! 

Illustrated  London  News. 


A    TOAD    UNDRESSING. 

'UDUBON  relates  that  he  once  saw  a  toad  un 
dress  himself.  He  commenced  by  pressing 
his  elbows  hard  against  his  side  and  rubbing 
downward.  After  a  few  smart  rubs,  his  hide 
began  to  burst  open  along  the  back.  He  kept 
on  rubbing  until  he  worked  all  his  skin  into  folds  on  his 
sides  and  hips  ;  then,  grasping  one  hind  leg  with  his  hands, 
he  hauled  off  one  leg  of  his  pants  the  same  as  anybody 
would ;  then  stripped  off  the  other  hind  leg  in  the  same 
way.  He  then  took  his  cast-off  skin  forward  between  his 
fore  legs  into  his  mouth,  and  swallowed  it ;  then,  by  raising 
and  lowering  his  head,  swallowing  as  his  head  came  down, 
he  stripped  off  his  skin  underneath,  until  it  came  to  his 
fore  legs  ;  then,  grasping  one  of  these  with  the  opposite 
hand,  by  a  single  motion  of  the  head,  and  while  swallow 
ing,  he  drew  it  from  the  neck  and  swallowed  the  whole. 

33 


514  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


THE    PIONEER    SOCIETY    ON    THE    DEATH    OF    ADMIRAL    SLOAT. 


tHE  Society  of  California  Pioneers  adopted  the 
following  report,  February  5,  1868,  on  the 
death  of  Admiral  Sloat,  senior  honorary  mem 
ber  of  the  Association  : — 

Rear- Admiral  John  Drake  Sloat  was  born  in 
New  York  in  the  year  1780.  He  entered  the 
United  States  Navy,  February  12,  1800,  and  after  aiding 
to  build  up  that  arm  of  the  service,  was  honorably  "mustered 
out,"  as  Sailing-Master  upon  the  reduction  of  the  navy.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  last  war  with  Great  Britain,  he  again 
entered  the  navy,  and  was  appointed  Sailing-Master,  Feb 
ruary  12,  1812.  He  was  promoted  Lieutenant,  July  24, 
1812,  and  saw  active  service  both  afloat  and  ashore.  In 
1820,  he  went  to  the  Brazilian  station  in  the  line-of-battle 
ship  Franklin*  under  (now  Rear- Admiral  Chas.  Stewart) 
the  hero  of  the  frigate  Constitution  ("Old  Ironsides),"  and 
returned  to  the  United  States  in  the  Congress  in  1812.  In 
1824  and  1825  Lieutenant  Sloat  commanded  the  United 
States  schooner  Grampus,  one  of  Commodore  David  Porter' s 
squadron,  on  duty  in  the  West  Indies,  in  search  of  the 
pirates  infesting  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  who  were  committing 
rapine  and  murder  in  that  region  ;  he  was  in  several  sharp 
fights  during  this  service.  Lieutenant  Sloat  was  promoted 
Master-Commandant,  March  21,  1826,  and  appointed  to 
the  sloop-of-war  St.  Louis,  o'f  the  Pacific  Squadron,  where 
he  served  two  years.  Commander  Sloat,  for  several  years 
after  his  return  home,  was  Commandant  of  the  United  States 
Naval  Recruiting  station  in  New  York  City,  was  promoted 
Post-Captain  February  9,  1837,  and  placed  on  waiting 
orders.  In  1841,  he  was  ordered  to  the  command  of  the 
Navy  Yard  at  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  where  he 
remained  three  years.  In  1845,  at  a  time  when  the  whole 
country  was  in  a  state  of  excitement  upon  two  important 
political  and  diplomatic  questions,  and  rumors  of  war,  with 
Great  Britain  for  the  northwest  boundary,  with  the  cry  of 


i 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  515 

"  54°  4<r  or  fight,"  ran  through  the  land,  and  with  Mexico 
on  the  southern  boundary  to  maintain  the  right  of  the 
United  States  to  the  recently  admitted  State  of  Texas,  Cap 
tain  Sloat  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  Pacific 
Squadron,  and  hoisted  the  flag  of  Commodore  on  board  the 
frigate  SavannaJi  at  Callao,  Peru,  succeeding  Commodore 
Alexander  J.  Dallas,  who  had  died  at  that  place.  From 
the  time  of  his  arrival  in  the  Pacific,  Commodore  Sloat  was 
closely  watched  by  the  English  squadron  under  Admiral 
Sir  George  Seymour,  wan  followed  from  port  to  port  by  its 
ships,  and  more  often  by  the  ship-of-the-line,  Coiling  wood 
(eighty  guns),  bearing  the  flag  of  the  Admiral.  War  with 
Mexico  appeared  inevitable  ;  the  land  forces  of  the  United 
States  and  Mexico  were  in  position  on  each  side  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  and  the  English  question  had  increased  in 
interest  and  excitement.  Mexican  territory  on  the  north 
west  coast  of  the  Pacific  had  long  been  coveted  by 
England  and  France,  to  prevent  any  further  acquisition 
west  by  the  United  States,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  time  had 
almost  arrived  when  all  these  subjects  were  to  be  definitely 
settled.  Under  these  circumstances  the  United  States  Squad 
ron  made  Mazatlan  its  point  of  rendezvous  in  November, 
1845,  where  it  was  soon  followed  by  several  English  ships, 
whilst  the  Collingwood  lay  at  San  Bias.  The  news  of  the 
battles  of  Palo  Alto  and  Resaca  de  la  Palma  having  reached 
Commodore  Sloat  early  in  June,  1846,  through  the  Mexican 
official  reports  published  in  the  newspapers  in  the  City  of 
Mexico,  he  sailed  immediately,  as  if  for  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  but  really  for  Monterey,  California,  where  he 
arrived  July  3,  1846,  took  possession  of  Monterey,  hoisted 
the  American  flag  July  7,  1846,  and  proclaimed  the  Cali- 
fornias  to  be  territory  of  the  United  States.  The  Colling- 
wood,  Admiral  Sir  George  Seymour,  arrived  at  Monterey 
July  16,  to  find  the  Americans  in  possession  of  the  country 
England  so  much  desired.  The  health  of  Commodore  (by 
courtesy)  Sloat  failing  very  much,  he  decided  to  return 
home,  and  sailed  for  Panama  in  the  sloop-of-war  Levant 
July  23,  1846.  The  Naval  Retiring  Board  of  1856,  placed 
Captain  Sloat  upon  the  Reserved  List,  and  when  the  grade 


516  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

of  Commodore  was  created  he  was  promoted  to  thrt  rank, 
July  16,  1862,  and  appointed  Rear-Admiral,  July  26, 
1865,  on  tlie  Retired  List,  During  the  latter  years  of  his 
life,  Rear- Admiral  Sloat  was  in  command  of  the  Navy  Yard 
at  Norfolk,  Virginia,  was  employed  on  special  service  in 
superintending  the  construction  of  Stevens'  Battery,  at 
Hoboken,  New  Jersey,  and  last,  was  Superintendent  of  the 
United  States  mail  ships  sailing  out  of  the  port  of  New 
York. 

Rear- Admiral  Sloat,  after  the  long  service  to  his  country 
of  sixty-seven  years,  died  at  his  residence  on  Staten  Island, 
New  York,  November  28,  1867,  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven, 
highly  respected  and  honored  by  his  family,  his  brother 
officers,  and  a  very  large  circle  of  friends. 


THE    WONDERS    OF    THE    CORAL    REEFS. 

|HE  submarine  scenery  of  the  " lagoons"  of 
those  tropical  islands  that  are  surrounded  by 
,.Jjj§(-  coral  reefs,  is  something  wonderfully  beautiful. 
In  some  cases,  these  reefs  encircle  the  island 
gl^SSiS^  so  completely  as  to  leave  scarcely  a  single 
passage  or  gateway  by  which  it  can  be  ap 
proached.  Ordinarily  there  is  a  space  of  a  mile  or  a  mile 
and  a  half  between  the  reef  and  the  beach  of  the  island. 
From  the  inner  edge  of  the  reef,  to  the  white  broad  beach, 
spreads  the  clear  expanse  of  the  lagoon,  smooth  and  unruf 
fled  as  the  surface  of  an  inland  lake. 

Below,  through  the  calm  translucent  waters  are  seen 
numbers  of  different  kinds  of  shell-fish,  attached  to  the 
coral  branches  or  wedged  into  their  interstices.  Others  that 
are  feeding  reflect  the  brightest  colors  with  every  motion. 
Purple  mullet,  variegated  rock-fish  and  small  ray-fish,  are 
dashing  hither  and  thither  near  the  bottom.  Another 
species  of  mullet,  of  a  splendid  changeable  blue  and  green, 
seem  to  be  feeding  upon  the  little  polyps  protruding  from 
the  coral  tops.  Shells,  sea-plants,  corals  and  fishes,  and 
the  slightest  movement  of  the  last,  even  to  the  vibration  of 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  517 

a  tiny  fin,  or  the  gentle  opening  of  the  gills  in  respiration, 
can  be  seen  with  perfect  distinctness  in  this  transparent 
medium. 

But  what  chiefly  attracts  attention,  is  the  gay  tints  and 
curious  shapes  of  the  innumerable  zoophytes,  or  "flower 
animals,"  springing  up  from  the  sides  and  bottom  of  the 
basin,  and  unfolding  their  living  leaves  above  the  limestone 
trunks  or  stems  that  encase  them.  Blue,  red,  pink,  orange, 
purple,  and  green,  are  among  their  colors  ;  and  the  variety 
of  patterns  seems  absolutely  endless.  They  mimic,  in  their 
manner  of  growth,  the  foliage  of  trees,  the  spreading  antlers 
of  the  stag,  globes,  columns,  stars,  feathery  plumes,  trailing 
vines,  and  all  the  wildest  and  most  graceful  forms  of  terres 
trial  vegetation.  Nothing  is  wanting  to  complete  this  sub 
marine  shrubbery,  even  to  the  minutest  details.  There  are 
mosses  and  ferns  and  lichens,  and  spreading  shrubs  and 
branching  trees,  and  bunches  of  slender,  thread-like  stems, 
swaying  gently  with  the  motion  of  the  water.  And  it 
requires  no  effort  of  the  imagination  to  see  fancifully- shaped 
wild  flowers  in  the  numerous  varieties  of  actiniae  or  sea- 
anemones,  many  of  which  bear  the  closest  resemblance  to 
wood-pinks,  asters  and  carnations.  The  imitations  of  these 
flowers  are  in  some  cases  wonderfully  perfect,  even  to  their 
delicate  petals,  which  are  represented  by  the  slender  fringe- 
like  tentacles  of  the  polyp,  protruding  from  its  cell.  Besides 
these  counterparts  of  land  vegetation,  there  are  waving  sea- 
fans,  solid  masses  of  sponge  coral,  clubs  of  Hercules,  madre 
pores,  resembling  elegantly  formed  vases  filled  with  flowers, 
dome-like  groups  of  astrse,  studded  with  green  and  purple 
spangles,  with  thousands  of  other  shapes  so  strange  and 
fantastic  that  they  can  be  likened  to  no  other  objects  in 
nature. — CHRISTOPHER  ROMAILNT'S  (J.  F.  BOWMAN'S), 
"  Island  Home." 


518  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


HOW    TO    GET    RICH. 

the  opening  of  the  Northern  District  Fair, 
held  at  Marysville,  September,  1865,  General 
Bidwell,  in  the  course  of  his  opening  address, 
thus  plainly  exposed  the  cause  of  the  k '  hard 
times"  in  California: — 
In  regard  to  the  dullness  and  stagnation  in  business  which 
from  time  to  time  pervade  the  land,  there  are  many  causes 
and  many  remedies.  We  should  ask  ourselves :  Do  we 
not  continue  to  practice  the  habits  we  assumed  in  former 
and  flusher  times,  and  thereby  live  beyond  the  legitimate 
bounds  of  our  present  available  resources  \  It  is  true,  too, 
that  the  scarcity  of  money  and  the  high  rates  of  interest 
which  capital  commands,  precludes  the  possibility  of 
engaging  in  many  enterprises  for  the  development  of  the 
mines  and  the  improvement  of  the  material  resources  of  the 
State  ;  but  we  can  and  ought  to  produce  more  than  we  do 
even  with  our  present  means  and  the  present  high  prices  of 
labor  and  capital.  I  will  not  assert  that  we  can  at  once 
remedy  all  the  trouble  that  seems  to  beset  our  path  ;  but  I 
do  say  it  is  in  our  power  to  remedy  much  of  it.  But  so 
long  as  we  continue  to  import  things  that  can  be  produced 
here,  just  so  long  must  we  send  away  our  gold  to  pay  for 
them.  We  can  and  ought  to  produce  all,  or  nearly  all,  of 
the  thousands  of  barrels,  boxes,  and  cases  of  dried  apples, 
raisins,  and  other  fruits,  which  we  import,  amounting, 
annually,  to  half  a  million  of  dollars.  We  could  produce 
nearly  all  of  the  brandies,  malt,  and  other  liquors,  if  we 
must  have  them,  which  we  now  import,  and  thereby  save, 
annually,  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  dollars  more.  We  have 
the  means  and  should  produce  all  of  the  butter,  cheese, 
bacon,  hams,  pork,  lard,  lard  oil,  linseed,  and  in  time  even 
olive  oil,  which  we  import,  and  thereby  make  a  saving 
of  at  least  half  a  million  dollars  more  every  year.  We 
have  in  this  State  exhaustless  mines  of  nearly  pure  iron ; 
and  we  can  and  ought  to  produce  all  of  that  material  used 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  519 

for  railroads,  machinery,  and  other  purposes,  and  thereby 
save  annually  millions  of  dollars  more.  These,  and  thou 
sands  of  other  things  which  we  ought,  and  will,  eventually, 
be  compelled  to  produce  here,  or  do  without,  we  have  to 
pay  for  in  gold  ;  and  at  prices  which  charge  the  consumer 
with  transportation,  insurance,  and  profit  on  the  articles ; 
and  then  again  with  the  transportation,  insurance,  and  profit 
on  the  gold  sent  to  pay  for  them,  and  this,  of  course,  in 
addition  to  the  original  cost ;  all  of  which  can  be  saved 
by  producing  them  here.  If  we  can  not  do  all  of  this  at 
once,  we  should  do  as  much  as  we  can,  and  aim  to  make  the 
residue  at  the  earliest  practical  period.  Is  it  true  in  this 
land  of  luxurant  vegetation  where,  literally,  the  "cattle 
upon  a  thousand  hills ' '  graze  and  thrive  in  winter  as  well 
as  summer  with  little  or  no  attention,  that  we  must  continue 
to  transport  butter  and  cheese  from  New  York  ?  There  is 
no  such  necessity,  and  I  speak  from  experience.  But  a  few 
years  ago  nearly  all  the  farmers  of  this  valley,  and  I  among 
the  rest,  purchased  nearly  all  the  butter  they  used — butter 
that  had  been  imported  across  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  or 
around  Cape  Horn.  Some  of  it  seemed  old  enough  to  have 
made  a  voyage  around  the  world.  I  became  ashamed  of  it, 
and  resolved  that  if  I  could  not,  with  thousands  of  cattle 
which  I  had  at  the  time,  make  sufficient  butter  to  supply 
my  own  family — and  my  family  is  large,  over  fifty,  some 
times  a  hundred  in  number — I  would  do  without  it.  And 
with  many  other  things  I  have  made  similar  resolves  ;  and 
I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  say  they  have  resulted  in  success. 
If  the  whole  State — aroused  to  the  importance  of  decreasing 
importations  which  deplete  our  purses  and  absorb  the  means 
that  would  give  us  prosperity  and  independence,  would 
make  a  firm  resolve  to  manufacture  more  of  many  things  or 
do  without  them,  the  result  would  be  an  impetus  to  all 
branches  of  industry  that  would  revolutionize  the  condition 
of  things  and  banish  complaint  from  our  shores. 


520  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


DIRGE    FOR    THE    BEAUTIFUL. 

SOFTLY,  peacefully, 

Lay  her  to  rest ; 
Place  the  turf  lightly 

On  her  young  breast ; 
Gently,  solemnly, 

Bend  o'er  the  bed 
Where  we  have  pillowed 

Thus  early  her  head. 

Plant  a  young  willow 

Close  by  her  grave  ; 
Let  its  long  branches 

Soothingly  wave ; 
Twine  a  sweet  rose-tree 

Over  the  tomb ; 
Sprinkle  fresh  buds  there  ;— 

Beauty  and  bloom. 

Let  a  bright  fountain, 

Limpid  and  clear, 
Murmur  its  music 

(Smile  through  a  tear), 
Scatter  its  diamonds 

Where  the  loved  lies, — 
Brilliant  and  starry, 

Like  angels'  eyes. 

Then  shall  the  bright  birds 

On  golden  wing, 
Lingering  over 

Murmuring  sing ; 
Then  shall  the  soft  breeze 

Pensively  sigh, 
Bearing  rich  fragrance 

And  melody  by. 

Lay  the  sod  lightly 

Over  her  breast ; — 
Calm  be  her  slumbers, 

Peaceful  her  rest ! 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  521 

Beautiful,  lovely, 

She  was  but  given, 
A  fair  bud  to  earth, 

To  blossom  in  heaven. 


JAPAN. ITS    RESOURCES    AND    COMMERCIAL    IMPORTANCE. 


the  organization  of  the  China  and  Japan 
steamship  line,  public  attention  has  been  more 
than  ever  directed  to  the  extent,  resources,  and 
general  condition  of  the  latter  country.  The 
latest  and  best  authorities  set  down  the  popula 
tion  of  Japan  at  from  35,000,000  to  40,000,000  ; 
but  this  estimate,  no  doubt,  includes  the  island  of  Lew 
Chew  and  other  islands  which  have  a  very  indefinable  rela 
tion  to  Japan,  and  are  treated  by  some  writers  as  a  separate 
country.  The  extent  of  territory  is  even  more  indefinitely 
known  than  the  population.  Many  of  the  lesser  islands  are 
rarely  if  ever  visited  by  Europeans.  They  are  reached  by 
intricate  and  hazardous  channels,  and,  at  least,  have  at 
present  no  great  commercial  importance.  The  great  island 
of  Niphon,  with  its  inland  seas  and  cities,  and  the  two 
adjacent  islands  of  Kiusiu  and  Sikok,  attract  the  chief 
attention.  The  habitable  territory  is  thought  not  to  be 
much  greater  than  the  British  Isles. 

The  government  is,  in  fact,  a  confederacy,  and  the  real 
power  is  in  the  hands  of  one  hundred  and  ninety-six  princes, 
called  Daimios,  who  are  for  most  purposes  absolute  sover 
eigns  in  their  own  territory.  The  spiritual  Emperor  (Mi 
kado)  has  little  to  do  with  the  government ;  and  the  Tycoon, 
possessing  the  nominal  power  of  an  emperor  over  the  con 
federation,  is  only  a  Daimio  of  more  exalted  rank,  having 
some  relation  usually  to  the  Mikado  by  way  of  marriage. 

By  virtue  of  treaties  with  foreign  powers,  the  ports  of 
Nagasaki,  Kanagawa,  and  Hakodadi  were  opened  to  foreign 
trade.  As  the  advantage  of  commercial  intercourse  is 
better  understood,  the  jealous  and  exclusive  policy  which 


522  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

lias  governed  Japan  will,  no  doubt,  be  greatly  modified,  as 
has  already  been  the  case  in  China.  The  imports  and  ex 
ports  of  two  of  the  cities  above  named,  in  1862,  were  as 
follows : — 

Imports.  Exports. 

Nagasaki, '. £149,326  £217,314 

Kanagawa, 536,860  1,313,568 

In  the  year  1863,  one  hundred  British  ships  cleared  from 
Kanagawa.  The  exports  in  that  year  amounted  to  £2, 638, 503, 
and  the  imports  were  set  down  at  £811,146 — about  four- 
fifths  of  this  trade  being  then  in  the  hands  of  English  mer 
chants.  Among  the  exports  were  19,609  piculs  of  silk  and 
6,000,000  pounds  of  tea.  These  exports  hardly  made  any 
impression  upon  the  surplus  products  in  store,  and  which 
might  have  been  sent  abroad  but  for  the  timid  and  narrow 
policy  which  ruled  for  the  time.  Great  difficulty  has  here 
tofore  been  experienced  in  dealing  with  Japanese  currency, 
and  trade  has  been  done  with  less  hindrances  in  the  way 
of  barter,  than  by  any  other  method. 

In  1863,  the  vessels  entering  the  Japanese  ports  were: 
one  hundred  British,  forty  American,  thirteen  Dutch,  eight 
German,  seven  French,  two  Russian,  of  64,328  tons;  and 
one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  vessels  cleared,  of  61,210  tons. 

Agriculture  is  the  leading  pursuit  of  the  industrial  classes 
outside  of  the  large  cities.  As  rice  forms  the  chief  food, 
this,  of  course,  is  the  leading  agricultural  product.  Rota 
tion  of  crops  and  irrigation  is  practiced  to  great  perfection. 
The  principal  crops  are,  rice,  wheat,  barley,  millet,  cotton, 
beans,  buckwheat,  Indian  corn,  rape,  pease,  hemp,  and 
tobacco.  There  are  few  domestic  animals,  the  inhabitants 
never  eating  animal  food.  Oxen  and  cows  are  used  for 
draught,  and  usually  singly.  No  use  is  made  of  cows' 
milk,  and  sheep  and  pigs  are  not  generally  raised.  Most 
of  the  vegetables  known  in  this  country,  are  also  cultivated 
in  Japan.  Fruits  are  abundant,  but  are  not  brought  to 
such  perfection  as  in  other  countries.  The  apple,  pear, 
plum,  peach,  grape,  chestnut,  persimmon,  pomegranate, 
fig,  orange,  lemon,  citron,  strawberry,  and  many  other 
kinds  of  small  fruit,  are  common  in  that  country.  The  flora 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  523 

is  also  remarkable  ;  many  rare  plants  have  been  brought 
from  Japan  and  propagated  in  this  State. 

The  timber-trees  of  Japan  are  said  to  equal  in  value  those 
of  any  other  country  of  the  same  extent  in  the  world.  The 
conifers  are  most  numerous,  and  these  are  cultivated  with 
the  utmost  care.  Nearly  every  known  species  of  oak-tree 
is  found,  both  live  oak  and  deciduous  ;  and  the  timber  of 
several  of  these  varieties,  unlike  that  of  California,  is  the 
very  best  both  for  ship-building  and  other  purposes  requir 
ing  great  strength  and  solidity.  Some  of  the  best  cabinet 
woods  known  to  artisans  abound.  Specimens  of  these  woods 
are  often  seen  in  articles  imported  from  that  country.  The 
elms  also  grow  to  a  great  size,  and  this  timber  is  of  excel 
lent  quality.  The  camphor  and  mulberry  tree  are  of  great 
value.  There  is  a  usage  prevailing  worthy  of  a  speedy  intro 
duction  here.  Whoever  cuts  down  a  forest  tree  is  required 
forthwith  to  plant  another.  This  rule  would  have  a  most 
salutary  effect  upon  the  heedless,  improvident  men,  who 
slash  down  our  beautiful  forests,  destroying  more  timber 
than  they  ever  take  to  market ;  and  especially  ought  it  to 
apply  speedily  to  those  who  strip  the  bark  from  the  rarest 
and  most  beautiful  oaks  of  California,  and  leave  the  trunks 
of  thousands  of  those  trees  every  year  to  rot  upon  the 
ground. 

Japan  is  also  rich  in  minerals.  Kaempfer,  a  good  author 
ity,  says:  "The  greatest  riches  of  the  Japanese  soil,  and 
those  in  which  the  Empire  exceeds  most  known  countries, 
consist  in  all  sorts  of  minerals  and  metals,  particularly  in 
gold,  silver,  and  copper."  It  is  estimated  that  the  Dutch, 
in  the  course  of  sixty-five  years,  sent  out  of  that  country 
gold  to  the  value  of  nearly  £50,000,000.  Silver,  quick 
silver,  lead,  tin,  iron,  and  sulphur  are  abundant.  But  the 
most  important  natural  production  in  its  relation  to  modern 
commerce,  is  coal.  There  is  hardly  a  doubt  but  this  article 
can  be  obtained  in  any  desirable  quantity.  Bituminous 
coal  is  the  only  kind  yet  seen  by  foreigners,  and  much  of 
this,  taken  from  the  surface,  was  not  of  the  best  quality. 
Some  specimens  from  a  greater  depth  were  obtained  during 
Commodore  Perry's  visit,  which  were  of  an  excellent 


524:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

quality.  Enough  is  known  to  warrant  the  opinion  that 
steamships  touching  at  the  principal  ports  opened  to  com 
merce,  could  always  obtain  a  supply  of  native  coal,  and 
that  ultimately  there  will  be  no  more  of  restriction  upon  its 
export,  than  upon  tea  or  silk. 

The  list  of  fibrous  plants  is  very  large.  About  seventy 
different  sorts  of  paper  are  made  in  Japan,  and  some  of 
these  exceed  in  delicacy  and  toughness  the  manufactures  of 
any  other  country.  All  papers  are  made  by  hand,  and 
nearly  all  are  made  from  the  bark  of  trees  and  shrubs — the 
bark  of  the  mulberry- tree  is  used  to  a  great  extent.  No 
rags  are  used  as  paper  stock  ;  the  barks  and  fibers  furnish 
ing  much  better  material.  Some  years  ago  an  attempt  was 
made  to  export  rags  from  Japan  ;  but  it  was  found  that  the 
coloring  matter  peculiar  to  that  country  could  not  easily  be 
separated,  and  the  business  at  that  time  was  given  up  as 
unprofitable. 

Little  account  has  thus  far  been  made  of  any  passenger 
traffic  furnished  by  Japan.  A  few  years  ago,  China  furnished 
no  passengers.  Now,  it  is  estimated  that  at  least  five  thou 
sand  Chinese  will  travel  each  way  by  the  proposed  line  of 
steamers.  Restrictions  upon  travel  have  already  been  in 
good  part  removed  by  the  Japanese  authorities.  The  time 
may  not  be  far  distant  when  this  curious  and  inquisitive 
people,  availing  themselves  of  their  newly-granted  privi 
leges,  will  travel  extensively,  and  their  patronage  in  this 
way  may  yet  become  of  great  importance  to  this  port,  and 
in  its  effects  upon  the  great  steamship  line  so  soon  to  com 
mence  operations.— £  F.  Bulletin,  August  3,  1866. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  525 

GOLD    DIGGING    IX    THE    TIME    OF    QUEEN    ELIZABETH. 

{HE  discovery  of  gold,  always  an  object  of  am 
bition,  has  not  unfrequently  been  prosecuted 
with  eagerness  and  avidity,  and  the  wildest 
schemes  have  been  proposed,  the  most  extra 
ordinary  attempts  made  to  obtain  this  coveted 
treasure.  Alchemists,  adventurers  of  all  nations 
and  c  roads,  navigators  of  renown,  the  educated  and  igno 
rant,  tlio  wealthy  and  needy,  have  in  turn  devised  and 
assisted  in  the  endeavor  to  discover  gold,  and  nearly  every 
part  of  the  globs  has  been  ransacked  for  the  same  object. 
Three  centuries  ago,  companies  were  formed,  large  sums  of 
money  subscribed,  vessels  fitted  out,  and  able  commanders 
appointed  to  attempt  a  discovery — a  great  discovery  ;  and 
though  gold  most  certainly  was  not  the  original  object,  it  is 
equally  certain  that  it  had  a  most  important  influence  on  the 
continuous  and  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  discovery,  and 
that  tlio  hope  of  it  largely  contributed  to  swell  the  list  of 
subscribers  in  two  out  of  the  three  celebrated  voyages  un 
dertaken  by  Martin  Frobisher  in  search  of  a  northwest 
passage.  Previous  attempts,  it  is  true,  had  been  made  to 
discover  this  passage  ;  but  on  the  accession  of  "the  Virgin 
Queen"  a  host  of  adventurers  presented  themselves.  Argu 
ments,  letters  and  memorials  followed  in  succession  from 
persons  anxious  to  attempt  the  discovery,  and  equally 
willing  to  encounter  dangers  in  order  to  attain  it.  Sir 
Humphrey  Gfylberte's  discourse  to  prove  a  passage  by  the 
northwest  no  doubt  contributed  to  stimulate  efforts  in  that 
direction,  and  was  most  probably,  as  Chalmers  says,  the 
cause  of  Frobisher'  s  first  voyage. 

A  year  before  its  publication,  in  1575,  Frobisher  was  the 
bearer  of  a  letter  from  the  Queen  to  the  Muscovy  Company, 
in  which  they  were  exhorted  to  again  attempt  the  discovery. 
Twenty  years  had  elapsed  since  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby's 
unfortunate  expedition,  when  most  of  his  company  perished 
with  cold  in  Lapland.  The  Company's  answer  was  not 
favorable,  and  the  Queen  was  induced  to  write  a  second 


526  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

letter.  Soon  afterward,  Frobisher,  with  Michael  Lok,  and 
others  who  would  be  adventurers,  obtained  the  required 
license  from  the  Muscovy  Company,  and  a  voyage  was  re 
solved  upon.  It  was,  however,  delayed  a  whole  year  for 
lack  of  money,  and  might  perhaps  have  been  abandoned 
altogether,  but  for  Michael  Lok.  It  was  mainly  through 
his  exertions  that  the  necessary  expenses  were  collected. 
Lok  himself  subscribed  upward  of  £700  out  of  the  required 
sum  of  £1,600.  Every  thing  being  at  length  in  readiness, 
Frobisher  sailed  on  his  first  voyage  from  Gravesend  on  the 
12th  June,  1576,  with  his  little  fleet  of  three  small  vessels 
and  thirty-four  men. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  speak  of  the  geographical  dis 
coveries  which  were  made  by  Frobisher  in  this  or  either  of 
his  celebrated  voyages.  They  were,  as  it  is  well  known,  of 
very  considerable  importance,  and  thoroughly  established 
his  reputation  as  a  great  navigator  and  commander.  After 
much  suffering  and  great  hardships,  Frobisher  returned  in 
the  following  October,  with  the  loss  of  one  of  his  vessels 
and  two-thirds  of  his  little  company.  Thirty-four  persons 
had  sailed  with  him,  thirteen  only  returned.  "He  also 
brought  a  strange  man  from  Frobisher' s  Strait"  with  him, 
who  was  seized,  and  by  main  force  pulled  on  board  by 
Frobisher  himself,  while  in  the  act  of  receiving  a  present  of 
a  bell. 

Before  sailing,  Frobisher  had  made  a  promise  to  Lok  that 
he  would  give  him  "the  first  thing  he  found  in  the  new 
land."  Apiece  of  black  stone,  "as  great  as  a,  half-penny 
loaf,"  was  the  accepted  gift,  and  upon  this  black  stone 
hangs  our  history  of  the  (supposed)  gold  discovery.  The 
stone  was  in  Lok' s  possession,  and  as  a  proof  of  the  value 
of  it  in  his  opinion,  he  lost  no  time  in  handing  pieces  of  it 
to  the  assay-master  of  the  Tower,  and  to  other  gold  refiners. 
Several  proofs  were  made,  and  ' '  so  much  marvaile ' '  at  the 
results,  that  Lok  took  them  to  the  Queen  herself. 

A  second  voyage,  previously  resolved  upon,  was  con 
firmed,  and  commissioners  immediately  appointed  to  carry 
out  all  the  details,  the  Privy  Council  having  unhesitatingly 
reported  in  favor  of  it.  The  few  who  knew  of  the  gold  dis- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  527 

covery  were  exhorted  to  secresy,  but  without  avail.  The 
news  soon  spread,  and  doubtless  gave  some  offense  to  the 
Queen,  for  Lok,  in  a  long  letter  to  Elizabeth,  took  consider 
able  pains  "to  set  down  all  his  proceedings  in  this  mat 
ter." 

All  were  now  eager  to  join  in  the  adventure.  The  Queen 
doubled  her  subscription,  making  it  £1,000.  The  Lord 
Treasurer,  Lord  Admiral,  and  other  high  dignitaries  sub 
scribed  £100  each  ;  Sir  Thomas  Gresham  twice  that  amount ; 
Sir  Philip  Sydney,  £50.  All  the  charges  of  this  voyage 
were  estimated  at  £4,500. 

Frobisher  sailed  on  his  second  voyage  the  26th  May,  1577, 
with  three  vessels,  victualed  for  seven  months,  and  one 
hundred  and  twenty  men.  Thirty  of  his  company  were 
either  miners  or  refiners,  and  they  were  taken  expressly  to 
work  at  the  mines  whence  the  piece  of  ore  was  brought. 
If  the  mines  failed,  Frobisher  was  instructed  to  send  one 
of  his  ships  home,  while  the  other  two  were  to  proceed  to 
make  the  discovery  of  the  northwest  passage.  If  they 
proved  successful,  he  was  commanded  not  to  discover  the 
secret  of  their  riches.  After  four  months  absence  the  ships 
arrived  at  Bristol,  and  Frobisher  was  immediately  ordered 
by  the  Privy  Council  to  unload  them  and  discharge  the 
ore.  This  was  to  be  deposited  in  Bristol  Castle,  or  some 
other  safe  place,  under  four  locks,  the  keys  of  which  were 
to  be  kept  by  Frobisher  himself,  the  Mayor  of  Bristol,  Sir 
Eichard  Berkeley,  and  Michael  Lok.  One  object  of  this 
voyage,  thetobtaining  a  quantity  of  the  supposed  gold  ore, 
was,  no  doubt,  thought  to  have  been  successful.  Lok  was 
in  a  fever  of  excitement ;  he  believed  in  the  complete  suc 
cess  of  the  gold  discovery,  and  imagined  his  fortune  already 
made.  He  urged  the  Council  to  determine  on  the  speedy 
melting  of  the  ore,  and  also  that  his  office  of  Treasurer 
might  be  ratified. 

A  month  elapsed.  During  this  time  the  officers  of  the 
Mint  had  been  directed  by  the  Privy  Council  to  receive  the 
ore  into  the  Tower.  Lok  had  reported  to  Secretary  Wals- 
ingham  that  though  not  yet  brought  to  perfection  because 
of  the  jealousy  of  the  workmen,  who  were  loath  to  show 


528  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

their  coining,  it  was  very  rich,  and  would  yield  £40  a  ton, 
clear  of  all  charges,  adding,  "this  is  assuredly  true,  which 
may  suffice  to  embrace  the  enterprise."  Notwithstanding 
this  report,  it  is  evident  that  the  opinions  of  the  ' '  work 
men"  differed  materially.  One  asserted  that  two  tons 
would  yield  in  fine  gold  twenty  ounces  ;  a  second  asserted 
that  although  he  had  proved  it  to  the  utmost,  he  found  "  no 
such  great  riches  ;' '  while  a  third  declared  that  lie  could 
discover  in  the  ore  neither  gold  nor  silver,  or  next  to  none. 
Some  of  these  proofs  of  "  Frobisher's  ore,"  in  the  shape  of 
small  particles  of  gold  fastened  to  paper  by  sealing-wax, 
are  in  her  Majesty's  Public  Record  Office,  and  in  a  perfect 
state  of  preservation. 

If  any  unfavorable  reports  were  spread  of  the  value  of 
the  ore,  they  must  have  been  quickly  suppressed,  or.  at  all 
events,  have  met  with  little  credence.  The  Queen  com 
manded  Secretary  Walsingham  to  write  to  the  Lord  Treas 
urer  and  the  Lord  Chamberlain  that  her  Majesty,  "under 
standing  that  the  riches  of  the  earth  is  like  to  "fall  out  to  a 
good  reckoning,  is  well  pleased  that  a  third  voyage  be  taken 
in  hand."  Before  the  truth  could  be  really  ascertained, 
another  voyage  was  resolved  upon,  and  the  necessary  ex 
penses  quickly  subscribed  for  Frobisher's  third  voyage. 
The  Queen,  her  officers  of  State,  lords  and  commoners, 
were  anxious  to  be  adventurers  ' '  in  the  goods  now  come 
home,  or  else  in  the  next  adventure."  An  expedition, 
more  costly  than  both  the  two  preceding,  was  quickly  put 
in  preparation,  and  pressed  forward  with  expedition.  Lord 
Burghley,  himself  an  adventurer,  brought  all  the  resources 
of  his  active  mind  into  vigorous  use  to  insure  the  success 
of  the  enterprise.  All  his  memoranda  are  preserved.  Ships 
were  to  be  sent  capable  of  bringing  home  five  thousand 
tons  weight  of  ore.  He  calculated  that  one  miner  could  dig 
half  a  ton  of  ore  a  day,  and  then  reckoned  the  number  of 
tons  that  one  hundred,  two  hundred,  or  three  hundred 
miners  could  dig  in  a  month.  The  wages  of  the  miners, 
the  freight  of  the  ore,  and  the  charges  of  keeping  one  hun 
dred  men  in  the  country  for  eighteen  months — in  fact,  every 
detail  connected  with  this  voyage  was,  to  the  Lord  Treas- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  529 

urer,  a  matter  of  careful  consideration.  On  Frobisher' s 
arrival  at  Warwick  Island,  he  was  instructed  to  repair  to 
the  mines  and  minerals  where  he  wrought  the  year  before, 
and  there  to  place  the  miners  and  other  men  to  work  and 
gather  the  ore.  t  While  in  Warwick  Sound,  he  was  ordered 
to  search  in  other  places  for  other  mines,  and  if  any  were 
found  richer,  to  remove  thence.  Strict  injunctions  were 
given  against  allowing  assays  to  be  made  of  any  metal, 
matter  or  ore,  without  authority,  or  keeping  for  private  use 
any  ore,  under  severe  penalties.  Eleven  vessels  were  fitted 
out,  at  a  cost  of  £13,000,  and  sailed  from  Harwich  on  the 
31st  May,  1578,  the  Queen  herself  watching  their  departure, 
and  wishing  them  "  God  speed." 

Ten  weeks  afterward,  on  the  10th  of  August,  all  the 
miners  were  set  ashore  at  Bear's  Sound.  During  seven 
days,  Frobisher  himself  visited  divers  sounds  in  search  of 
ore.  Two  of  the  vessels  were  laden  at  Bears  Sound,  others 
at  the  Countess  of  Warwick  Sound,  at  the  "Countess  of 
Sussex"  mine,  and  at  Corbett's  Point,  Edward  Sellman, 
the  Registrar  of  the  fleet,  in  his  journal  of  this  voyage, 
gives  a  detailed  account  of  the  places  where  the  ore  was 
obtained,  the  difficulties  of  finding  it,  and  of  lading  it.  He 
says  they  could  not  light  upon  any  of  the  rich  ore  found 
last  year,  that  the  mine  in  the  Countess  Island  entirely 
failed,  and  that  he  thinks  "  much  bad  ore  will  be 

found." 

A  little  house  was  built  at  the  Countess  of  Warwick  mine 
to  stand  until  next  year,  and  many  mining  implements 
were  left  in  it.  The  vessels  laden,  they  sailed  home  in  "a 
terrible  storm."  Immediately  on  his  arrival  at  Cornwall,  on 
the  25th  of  September,  1578,  Frobisher  repaired  to  the  court 
at  Richmond,  and  from  thence  to  London.  "  No  small  joy 
was  conceived"  for  the  safety  of  the  men,  though  many 
died  of  sickness,  but  especially  for  the  treasure  brought 
home.  The  ships  were  laden  with  "rich  gold  ore,"  sup 
posed  to  be  worth  £60  and  £80  a  ton  ;  and  more  than  double 
the  quantity  was  brought  home  than  was  expected.  Several 
assayers  and  gold  refiners  commenced  their  proofs,  and 
workmen  from  Saxony  and  Germany  were  sent  for  ;  but 


530  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

unhappily,  the  first  trial  "proved  very  evil."  Further 
trials  were  made  in  presence  of  Sir  Thomas  Gresham  and 
the  other  Commissioners,  but  they  showed  "far  from  the 
riches  looked  for."  The  ore  grew  into  discredit ;  the  adven 
turers  began  to  fear  their  brilliant  hopei  might  prove 
illusory,  and  withheld  the  money  due  for  payment  of  the 
ships'  freight.  During  the  six  months  further  proofs  were 
made  in  the  presence  of  Frobisher  himself  and  other  per 
sons,  with  various  results,  but  none  were  satisfactory  or 
encouraging.  Then  complaints  began  to  be  heard,  and 
Michael  Lok  lamented  that  "  the  works  at  Dartford  lie  still 
dead  as  yet,  to  the  no  small  damage  of  the  Company." 
Their  stock  amounted  to  upward  of  £20,000  ;  of  which  the 
Queen  alone  subscribed  £4,000.  members  of  the  Privy 
Council,  £3,740  ;  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  £2,520  ;  and  Lok  alone 
£2,380;  while  Frobisher' s  subscription  was  but  £270. 
Time  passed  on  ;  nothing  satisfactory  had  been  done.  In 
despair,  Lok  petitioned  the  Privy  Council,  beseeching  their 
consideration.  He  had  for  three  years  taken  charge  of  all 
the  business  of  Frobisher' s  voyages,  and  ventured  all 
the  goods  he  had  in  the  world  ;  and  he,  his  wife,  and 
fifteen  children,  were  left  to  beg  their  bread  henceforth, 
"unless  God  turn  the  stones  of  Dartford  into  his  bread 
again. ' ' 

Two  years  elapsed,  and  even  then  the  positive  value  of 
the  ore  had  not  been  ascertained,  though  the  Queen  and  all 
interested,  must  by  that  time  have  been  convinced  that  any 
amount  of  gold  from  it  could  not  be  expected.  ~No  quantity 
appears  to  have  been  melted  either  at  Dartford  or  at  the 
Tower  during  all  this  time.  The  real  truth,  however,  came 
out  at  last,  and  all  doubts  were  finally  set  at  rest  by  two 
assays  made  by  William  Williams,  in  July,  1583.  The  two 
minute  particles  of  silver  found  in  two  hundred  weight  of 
" Frobisher' s  ore"  were  not  nearly  so  big  as  a  pin's  head, 
and  they  remain  to  this  day,  fastened  by  sealing-wax  to  the 
paper,  an  evidence  of  the  worthlessness  of  the  ore.  Thus 
fell  to  the  ground  all  the  golden  dreams  of  the  great  value 
of  the  suppoesd  discovery. 

Michael  was  the  son  of  Sir  William  Lok,  an  alderman  of 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  531 

London,  and  had  traveled  upward  of  thirty  years  "through 
almost  all  the  countries  of  Christianity."  He  was  an  "old 
acquaintance"  before  Martin  Frobisher  sailed  on  his  first 
voyage,  but  the  ruin  of  one  and  the  disappointment  of  both 
embittered  their  subsequent  relationship  and  made  them 
enemies.  According  to  his  own  account,  Lok  had  used 
Frobisher  "as  his  fellow  and  friend,"  had  opened  all  his 
private  studies  and  twenty  years'  labor  to  Frobisher,  had 
shown  him  all  his  books,  maps,  charts,  and  instruments.  "  I 
daily  instructed  him,"  says  Lok;  "making  my- house  his 
home,  my  purse  his  purse  at  need,  and  my  credit  his  credit 
to  my  power,  when  he  was  utterly  destitute  both  of  money, 
credit  and  friends."  The  last  we  hear  of  Michael  Lok  is 
unfortunate  indeed.  A  prisoner  in  the  Fleet,  he  petitions 
the  Privy  Council  for  consideration  for  ' '  his  present  poor 
state."  Nearly  £3,000  was  still  owing  by  the  adventurers 
to  Frobisher' s  voyages,  and  for  which  Lok  was  unhappily 
bound.  He  earnestly  prays  for  his  release,  for  his  accounts 
to  be  discharged,  his  bond  for  £4, 000  for  the  Queen's  ad 
venture  to  be  canceled,  and  a  warrant  for  protection  for 
debts  owing  by  the  company.  Let  us  hope  his  petition  was 
granted.  There  is  evidence  that  Frobisher  lodged  at  the 
house  of  one  Brown,  in  Fleet  Street,  and  then,  "  to  be  nearer 
Lok,"  at  Widow  Hancock, 's  in  Mark  Lane.  Soon  after 
Frobisher  sailed  on  his  second  voyage,  the  pitiful  voice  of 
his  wife  was  heard,  praying  to  be  kept  from  starvation. 
Isabel  Frobisher,  "the  most  miserable  poor  woman  in  the 
world,"  as  she  styles  herself,  petitioned  Secretary  Walsing- 
ham  for  relief  until  her  husband' s  return.  She.  asserted  that 
she  was  first  the  wife  of  Thomas  Riggat,  of  Snaith,  in  York 
shire,  a  very  wealthy  man,  who  had  left  her  in  very  good 
state  and  with  good  portions  to  all  her  children  ;  that  she  after 
ward  "took  to  husband,  Mr.  Captain  Frobisher  (whom God 
forgive  !)  who  had  spent  all,  and  put  them  to  the  wide  world 
to  shift, "and  that  her  children  of  her  first  husband  were 
with  her  in  a  poor  room  at  Hempstead,  ready  to  starve.  Un 
fortunately,  we  have  no  clew  to  the  result  of  this  appeal. 
Whether  Frobisher  had  spent  all  his  wife' s  and  her  children' s 
portions  in  the  further  prosecution  of  his  great  discoveries 


532  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

we  can  not  tell.  Though  unsuccessful  in  ''gold-digging," 
Frobisher  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  the  excitement  in 
that  direction.  The  hopes  alone  of  a  gold  discovery  proved 
of  estimable  benefit,  no  less  to  himself  than  to  his  country. 
They  helped  to  rouse  the  enthusiasm  of  his  admirers,  and 
they  encouraged  the  liberality  of  adventurers  in  his  voyages 
for  the  avowed  purpose  of  discovering  the  northwest  pas 
sage. — Once  a  Week. 


THE  VULTURE. AFTER  THE  LATE  EDGAR  A.  POE. 

[TiiE  Yulture  is  the  most  cruel,  deadly,  and  voracious  of 
the  birds  of  prey.  He  is  remarkable  for  his  keen  scent,  and 
for  the  tenacity  with  which  he  invariably  clings  to  the  victim 
on  whom  he  has  fixed  his  gripe.  He  is  not  to  be  shaken  off, 
while  the  humblest  pickings  remain.  He  is  usually  found 
in  an  indifferent  state  of  feather. — New  Translation  of 
CumerJ} 

Once  upon  a  midnight  chilling,  as  I  held  my  feet  unwilling 
O'er  a  tub  of  scalding  water,  at  a  heat  of  ninety-four  ; 
Nervously  a  toe  in  dipping,  dripping,  slipping,  then  outskipping, 
Suddenly  there  came  a  ripping,  whipping  at  my  chamber  door — 
"  'Tis  the  second  floor,"  I  muttered,  "  flitting  at  my  chamber  door — 
.  Wants  a  light — and  nothing  more  !" 

Ah  !  distinctly  I  remember,  it  was  in  the  chill  November, 
And  each  cuticle  and  member  was  Avith  influenza  sore  ; 
Falteringly  I  stirred  the  gruel,  steaming,  creaming  o'er  the  fuel, 
And  anon  removed  the  jewel  that  each  frosted  nostril  bore — 
Wiped  away  the  trembling  jewel  that  each  reddened  nostril  bore — 
Nameless  here  forevermore  ! 

And  I  recollect  a  certain  draught  that  fanned  the  window  curtain 
Chilled  me,  filled  me  with  a  horror  of  two  steps  across  the  floor ; 
And,  besides,  I'd  got  my  feet  in,  and  a  most  refreshing  heat  in — 
To  myself  I  sat  repeating,  "  If  I  answer  to  the  door, 
Rise  to  let  the  ruffian  in  who  seems  to  want  to  burst  the  door, 
I'll  be ,"  that  and  something  more  ! 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  533 

Presently  the  row  grew  stronger ;  hesitating  then  no  longer, 
"  Really,  Mr.  Johnson,  blow  it ! — your  forgiveness  I  implore, 
Such  an  observation  letting  slip,  but  when  a  man's  just  getting 
Into  bed,  you  come  upsetting  nerves  and  posts  of  chamber  door, 
Making  such  a  row,  forgetting  " — Spoke  a  voice  beyond  the  door, 
"  Tisn't  Johnson  " — nothing  more  ! 

Quick  a  perspiration  clammy  bathed  me,  and  I  muttered  "  Damme," 
(Observation  wrested  from  me,  like  the  one  I  made  before) — 
Back  upon  the  cushions  sinking,  hopelessly  my  eyes,  like  winking, 
On  some  stout  for  private  drinking,  ranged  in  rows  upon  the  floor 
Fixed — and  on  an  oyster  barrel  (full)  beside  them  on  the  floor, 
Looked  and  groaned,  and  nothing  more. 

Open  then  was  flung  the  portal,  and  in  stepped  a  hated  mortal, 
By  the  moderns  called  a  VULTURE  (known  as  sponge  in  days  of  yore). 
Well  I  knew  his  reputation  !  cause  of  all  my  agitation — 
Scarce  a  nod  or  salutation  changed,  he  pounced  upon  the  floor, 
Coolly  lifted  up  the  oysters  and  some  stout  from  off  the  floor, 
Helped  himself — then  took  some  more  ! 

Then  this  hungry  beast,  untiring,  fixed  his  gaze  with  fond  admiring, 
On  a  piece  of  cold  boiled  beef  I  meant  to  last  a  week  or  more. 
Quick  he  set  to  work  devouring — plates  in  quick  succession  devour 
ing— 

Stout  with  every  mouthful  showering  made  me  ask,  to  see  it  pour, 
If  he  quite  enjoyed  his  supper,  as  I  watched  the  liquid  pour: 
Said  the  Vulture;  "  Nevermore !" 

Much  disgusted  at  the  spacious  vacuum  by  this  brute  voracious 
Excavated  in  the  beef  (he'd  eaten  quite  enough  for  four) — 
Still  I  felt  relief  surprising,  when  at  length  I  saw  him  rising  ; 
That  he  meant  to  go,  surmising,  said  I,  glancing  at  the  door, 
"  Going  ? — well,  I  won't  detain  you — mind  the  stairs  and  shut  the 
door"— 

"  Leave  you,  Tompkins  ! — nevermore." 

Startled  by  an  answer  dropping  hints  that  he  intended  stopping 
All  his  life — I  knew  him  equal  to  it,  if  he  liked,  or  more — 
Half  in  dismal  earnest,  half  in  joke,  with  an  attempt  at  laughing, 
I  remarked  that  he  was  chaffing,  and  demanded  of  the  bore, 
Asked  what  this  disgusting,  nasty,  greedy,  vile,  intrusive  bore 
Meant  by  croaking  "  Nevermore." 


534  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

But  the  Vulture  not  replying,  took  my  bunch  of  keys,  and  trying 
Several,  found  at  length  the  one  to  fit  my  private  cupboard  door; 
Took  the  gin  out,  filled  the  kettle,  and  with  a  sang  froid  to  nettle 
Any  saint,  began  to  settle  calmly  down  the  grate  before, 
Really  as  if  lie  meant  departing  at  the  date  I  named  before, 
Of  never,  nevermore  ! 


Then  I  sat  engaged  in  guessing  what  this  circumstance  distressing 
Would  be  likely  to  result  in,  for  I  knew  that  long  before — 
Once  (it  served  me  right  for  drinking)  I  had  told  him  that  if  sink 
ing 

In  the  world,  my  fortune  linking  to  his  own,  he'd  find  my  door 
Always  open  to  receive  him,  and  it  struck  me  now  that  door 
He  would  pass,  perhaps,  nevermore  ! 


Suddenly  the  air  was  clouded,  all  the  furniture  enshrouded 
With  the  smoke  of  vile  tobacco — this  was  worse  than  all  before — 
i£  Smith,"  I  cried  (in  not  offensive  tones,  it  might  have  been  expens 
ive, 

For  he  knew  the  art  defensive,  and  could  costermongers  floor ;) 
"  Recollect  it's  after  midnight — are  you  going  ? — mind  the  floor !" 
Quoth  the  Vulture,  "  Nevermore  !" 

"  Smith  !"  (the  gin  was  going  down  his  throat,  in  rivers  flowing,) 
"  If  you  want  a  bed,  you  know  there's  quite  a  nice  hotel  next  door, 
Very  cheap — I'm  ill — and  joking  set  apart,  your  horrid  smoking 
Irritates  my  cough  to  choking.     Having  mentioned  it  before, 
Really,  you  should  not  compel  one — will  you  mizzle  as  before  ?" 
Quoth  the  Vulture,  "  Nevermore  !" 

"  Smith  !"    I    shrieked — the    accent  humbler    dropping,  as  another 

tumbler 

I  beheld  him  mix — "be  off!  you  drive  me  mad — it's  striking  four ; 
Leave  the  house  and  some  thing  in  it— if  you  go  on  at  the  gin,  it 
Won't  hold   out  another  minute.     Leave   the  house  and   shut  the 

door — 
Take  your  beak  from  out  my  gin,  and  take  your  body  through  the 

door!" 

Quoth  the  Vulture,  "  Nevermore  !" 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  535 

And  the  Vulture,  never  flitting,  still  is  sitting,  still  is  sitting, 
Gulping  down  my  stout  by  gallons,  and  my  oysters  by  the  score ; 
And  the  beast  with  no  more  breeding  than  a  heathen  savage,  feeding 
The  new  carpet's  tints  unheeding,  throws  his  shells  upon  the  floor, 
And  his  smoke  from  out  my  curtains,  and  his  stains  from  out  my 
floor, 

Shall  be  sifted  nevermore. 


THE    KEQUIEM    OF   THE    YEAR. 

ANOTHER  wrinkle  has  been  written  on  the 
brow  of  Time.  Another  year  is  dead.  Scarce 
have  the  echoes  ceased  of  those  exulting  strains 
which  ushered  in  his  advent,  when  the  air 
grows  heavy  with  the  sounds  of  lamentation. 
In  his  infancy  of  Spring  he  sported  joyously  amid  the  gush 
of  song-birds  and  the  blandishment  of  flowers.  In  the  golden 
Summer  of  his  youth  he  dallied  with  delusive  dreams.  But 
the  Autumn  of  manhood  stole  upon  him  with  its  stern  vicis 
situdes,  and  long  and  painfully  he  buffeted  the  billows, 
until  at  last  the  Winter  of  old  age,  with  many  sorrows  pierc 
ing  his  great  heart,  bade  it  cease  to  throb  forever.  Prone 
on  the  frozen  breast  of  earth  he  lies,  in  rigid  state,  wrapped 
in  his  winding-sheet  of  snows,  while  the  low  measured  moan 
of  ocean  and  the  wild  wailing  of  the  northern  blast  blend 
with  the  voices  of  the  night  to  chant  his  requiem.  Clinched 
in  his  pulseless  grasp  he  bears  away  (what  none  can  sum 
mon  back)  a  severed  cycle  of  the  life,  the  mind,  the  deeds, 
the  destinies  of  all  the  living.  Forth  from  their  cerements 
start  the  specters  of  the  by-gone  years  to  greet  him  at  his 
coming.  Within  that  dread  domain  where  he  has  gone  they 
stand  like  sentinels  to  guard  its  secrets  till  the  day  of  doom. 
Not  wisely  said  the  moralist:  "  The  Past  is  but  a  point." 
For  what  seems  thus  to  the  gross  sense  of  man  is  a  vast  land 
of  stillness  and  of  shadows.  Unfathomable  wonders  lie  con 
cealed  behind  its  dusky  veil,  waiting  forevermore  the  grand 
event  of  nature's  dissolution.  No  mortal  eye  can  penetrate 


536  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

its  mysteries,  nor  mortal  tongue  evoke  the  spirits  from  its 
vasty  deep.  With  Titan  grasp  thought  ventures  to  essay 
it,  but  in  vain ;  with  vacillating  splendor  fancy  gilds  its 
vestibule,  yet  pierces  not  beyond.  There  the  wrecks  of 
empire  float  sullenly  along  the  stream  of  Time.  There  the 
crumbling  remnants  of  all  that  human  hand  hath  wrought 
or  human  intellect  hath  planned  lie  moldering  in  dim  and 
drear  magnificence.  There  the  designs  and  undertakings, 
the  struggles  and  achievements  of  unnumbered  generations 
are  scattered  far  and  wide  in  broken  fragments.  There  the 
tongue  of  Demosthenes  is  hushed  in  silence,  and  the  sword 
of  Hannibal  consumes  in  rust.  There  the  mean  and  the 
mighty,  the  oppressed  and  the  oppressor,  sleep  together. 
There  congregate  those  giant  souls  beneath  whose  tread  the 
globe  still  rings,  whose  exodus  from  earth  convulsed  the 
nations  with  a  grand  funereal  wail,  and  the  myriad  multi 
tudes  who  died  and  left  no  sign.  There  dwell  the  countless 
millions  of  the  buried  dead,  from  those  who  trod  this  orb 
when  first  it  sprang  all  green  and  glorious  from  its  Maker' s 
hand,  and  those  who  filled  the  intervening  vastness  of  the 
ages,  even  unto  those  who  yester-eve,  with  dying  eyes, 
gazed  on  the  setting  sun.  There  Ruin  bends  mournfully 
above  the  faded  grandeur  of  Assyria,,  the  pomp  of  Pericles, 
the  scepter  of  Seleucus,  and  the  broken  bow  of  Mithridates. 
There  the  shade  of  Csesar  grimly  stalks  along,  and  the  Cor- 
sican  stands  evermore  aloof,  in  the  tremendous  solitude -of 
his  incommunicable  soul.  No  music  floats  from  David's 
tuneless  lyre,  no  song  escapes  from  the  sealed  lips  of  Miri 
am,  no  timbrels  ring  athwart  the  somber  sea  of  Egypt.  All 
is  the  hush  of  dense,  impenetrable  silence.  Yet  not  alone 
to  earth  and  man  are  limited  the  mysteries  of  that  abstruse 
abyss.  Through  the  long  sweep  of  ages  and  the  vast  reach  of 
space,  uncounted  systems  have  sprung  forth  and  flourished 
and  decayed.  With  all  their  teeming-  life  and  high  intelli 
gences — some  loftier,,  some  lower,  than  the  race  of  man— 
they  have  departed.  Comets  have  flamed  through  their 
appointed  path,  and  meteors  have  blazed,  then  sunk  in  the 
immeasurable  void,  extinct  and  rayless.  Where  are  they 
now  ?  Go  ask  the  former  years !  And  he,  whose  dirge 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  537 

throbs  on  the  muffled  midnight  air,  has  gone  to  meet  them. 
Beyond  the  gleaming  stars  ;  beyond  the  myriad  worlds 
which  sparkle  on  the  night ;  beyond  remote  Arcturus,  and 
the  chorus  of  the  Pleiades,  and  the  reaches  of  Orion' s  beam  ; 
beyond  the  utmost  margin  of  created  things,  stretched  the 
wide  empire  of  that  dead  old  year.  It  spanned  a  universe, 
and  spread  far  out  into  the  fluctuating  mass  where  chaos 
rules,  where  leaden  darkness  dwells,  where  Deity  hath  not 
yet  shaped  confusion  into  order.  In  its  huge  circuit,  earth, 
with  all  that  it  contained!  or  controls,  was  but  an  atom. 

That  mighty  potentate  has  passed  away.  Grimly  he 
hoards  the  records  of  his  grand  experience  and  the  deeds 
which  chronicled  his  era  in  the  silence  of  the  Past.  Yet,  as 
the  sun-struck  Memnon  gave  a  sound,  from  that  mysterious 
and  awful  realm  comes  forth  a  voice  of  admonition  unto  all 
the  sons  of  Adam.  Into  the  secret  chambers  of  the  soul,  in 
the  still  hours  of  meditation,  steal  its  murmurs,  more  im 
pressive  than  the  oracles  of  Delphi,  whispering  how  vain 
are  all  the  uses  of  this  world. 

Alas,  that  man,  with  so  sublime  a  destiny,  and  aspirations 
so  exalted,  should  ever  grope  in  darkness  and  mirage. 
Chained  to  the  clods  of  earth,  as  once  Prometheus  to  the 
rock,  he  strives  not,  like  the  dauntless  Titan,  to  wrest  fire 
from  heaven.  Not  vainer  for  a  god  was  Persia's  sacred 
flame  or  Egypt's  crocodile,  than  are  the  idols  which  he  im- 
potently  worships.  What  is  pleasure  but  a  phantom,  what 
ambition  but  a  dream  ? — what  is  wealth  but  rust,  fame  but  a 
bubble  ?  The  phantom  flits,  the  dream  dissolves,  the  rust 
frets  silently  away,  the  bubble  bursts  ;  and,  standing  on  the 
very  verge  of  Time,  the  parting  soul  deplores  how  hollow 
and  unsatisfying  are  the  things  it  craved. 

Even  at  the  best,  the  record  of  man' s  life  is  a  sad  narrative 
of  blight  arid  change  ;  of  wasted  energies  and  faded  hopes  ; 
of  longings  still  ungratified,  yet  never  ceasing  ;  of  objects 
unattained,  yet  unrelinquished;  of  disappointment  and 
decay  ; — while  over  the  prevailing  desolation  passion  flings 
a  fiercer  scath,  as  lightning  blasts  the  summit  of  a  ruin. 
Far  in  the  olden  time,  that  venerable  sage  whose  life  was 
checkered  by  extreme  vicissitudes — whose  resistless  spirit, 


538  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

heaving  like  the  ocean,  scaled  the  loftiest  heights  of  human 
lore,  then  fluctuated  to  the  depths  of  sin,  but  rose  tri 
umphant  at  the  last ; — in  one  brief  monologue  pronounced 
the  epitaph  of  human  nature: — "I  entered  this  world 
in  impurity,  I  have  lived  in  perturbation,  I  depart  in 
anxiety.  Cause  of  Causes,  pity  me  !"  And  yet  the  dying 
Aristotle  dimly  saw,  and  the  butterfly  of  Pythagoras  ob 
scurely  symboled  what,  to  the  later  and  more  ripe  expe 
rience  of  a  maturer  age,  down  the  long  vista  of  descending 
years,  has  been  revealed— that  life  is  but  the  period  and 
earth  the  scene  of  man's  development  into  that  grand  pro 
portion,  faultless  symmetry,  and  beauty  superhuman,  which 
shall  glorify  the  soul  in  its  bright  sphere  beyond  the  stars. 
And  the  death  of  all  the  years  is  but  the  birth  of  life  im 
mortal !  It  is  allotted  unto  all  to  gather  from  the  past, 
instruction ;  from  the  present,  opportunity  ;  and  from  the 
future  (as  anciently  from  the  Hesperides'  enchanted  garden), 
the  golden  fruits  of  everlasting  peace.  The  gravestones  of 
the  earth  are  the  sententious  guardians  of  half  its  wisdom. 
Sculptured  on  their  marble  page  is  a  curt  summary  of  the 
desires,  the  projects,  the  results  of  human  life.  "  Look  not 
mournfully  into  the  Past."  saith  one  of  these  quaint  mon 
itors  ;  "it  comes  not  back  again.  Wisely  improve  the 
Present ;  it  is  thine.  Go  forth  to  meet  the  shadowy  Future 
without  fear  and  with  a  manly  heart."  Many  there  be  who 
pass  not  idly  through  the  world  as  a  child  wantons  among 
flowers,  but  diligently  gather  from  the  tree  of  life  its 
chosen  fruits.  These  wrest  improvement  from  the  waning 
years ;  these  hopefully  climb  the  drear  mountains,  nor 
shudder  when  they  come  to  the  dark  river  ;  these  make  the 
vanities  of  earth  the  stepping-stones  to  heaven. 

The  year  is  dead !  In  his  diversified  experience  were 
blended  all  the  alternations  and  vicissitudes  of  human  life. 
He  twined  fresh  laurels  round  the  victor' s  brow,  and  planted 
cypress  on  the  new-made  grave.  He  heard  the  first  cry  of 
infancy,  the  lover's  secret,  and  the  altar's  vow.  He  beheld 
the  demons  of  intemperance,  and  lust,  and  murder  holding 
their  high  carnival  among  the  nations.  He  gazed  on  fairer 
scenes — where  charity  dispensed  its  dole,  and  pity  sympa- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  539 

thized  with  grief,  and  good  deeds  flourished  in  a  naughty 
world.  He  saw  Hope  grasp  its  anchor,  and  Faith  cling  unto 
its  cross.  It  was  his  destiny  to  draw  forth  from  the  urn  of 
Fate  the  varied  lots  of  men,  and,  as  he  scattered  blessings  or 
bereavement,  his  course  was  luminous  with  joy  or  lurid 
with  despair. 

Another  year  succeedeth,  and  another,  in  a  long  unbroken 
train.  "They  fall  successive,  and  successive  rise.'1  Year 
after  year  fulfills  his  destined  mission ;  and,  departing, 
hands  unto  his  follower  the  torch  of  life." 

And  ever  more,  from  age  to  age,  it  shall  move  on  its 
flaming  path,  until  it  passes  to  the  youngest  born  of  Time. 
And  the  last  year  and  the  last  man  shall  die  together.  In 
that  dread  hour  of  nature' s  dissolution,  Chronos,  the  scythe- 
bearer,  the  father  of  the  years,  who  saw  the  earth  created, 
and  shall  see  it  crumble — each  hair  upon  Avhose  frosty  head 
it  took  a  century  to  bleach — will  perish,  too.  Amid  the 
aw^ful  grandeur  of  that  resurrection,  the  apocalyptic  angel 
shall  call  forth  from  earth  and  sea  the  dead  of  every  land 
and  every  generation,  in  multitudes  beyond  the  reach  of 
thought  to  number.  Then  from  their  charnel-house  those 
buried  years  shall  rise,  and  standing  at  the  base  of  their 
Eternal  Throne,  shall  render  their  stupendous  secrets  in  the 
presence  of  a  congregated  world,  while  the  sky  shrivels 
round  them  like  a  scroll,  and  stars  shoot  from  their  spheres, 
and  the  vast  fabric  of  creation,  rocking  in  the  agonies  of 
earthquake,  totters  to  its  fall. 

Farewell,  dark  voyager,  unto  the  shoreless  ocean  of 
oblivion,  farewell !  Thou  hast  done  much  of  good  within 
thy  day,  and  haply  much  of  evil.  Thou  hast  been  to  some 
a  messenger  of  mercy,  to  some  a  baleful  scourge.  Thou  hast 
swung  the  holy  censer,  and  kindled  the  flames  of  conflagra 
tion.  If  the  sword  and  the  pestilence  were  wielded  in  thy 
heavy  hand,  thon  hast  none  the  less  smiled  plenty  on  the 
teeming  soil,  brought  affluence  to  want,  and  made  the  desert 
blossom  as  the  rose.  It  is  for  him  alone  who  poises  the 
balance  of  the  universe  to  weigh  thy  deeds  aright.  Whether 
thy  works  of  blight  or  benison  preponderate  ;  whether  thou 
hast  urged  along  or  stayed  the  march  of  human  progress ; 


54:0  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

whether  thou  hast  purged  this  guilty  globe,  or  sunk  it 
deeper  into  crime,  none  may  declare  but  he  who  sitteth  on 
the  outer  circle  of  creation,  beyond  the  flaming  boundaries 
of  earth.  Through  the  channeled  aisles  and  fretted  naves 
of  a  thousand  grand  cathedrals  roll  the  ponderous  anthems 
which  swell  forth  thy  dirge.  And  the  voice  of  nature  catches 
up  the  sad,  sad  burden.  But  sadder  still  in  the  lone 
chambers  of  the  heart,  a  trampling  train  of  bygone  years 
moves  on  with  hollow  tread,  and  in  its  echoes  wakes  the 
memory  of  joys  forever  gone.  This  is  thy  requiem,  departed 
year ;  and  thus  the  burdened  spirit  takes  of  thee  its  last 
farewell.  Vale!—  Vale/ 

"  Yet,  why  muse 

Upon  the  past  with  sorrow  ?     Though  the  year 
Has  gone  to  blend  with  the  mysterious  tide 
Of  old  Eternity,  and  "borne  along 
Upon  its  heaving  breast  a  thousand  wrecks 
Of  glory  and  of  beauty,  yet  why  mourn 
That  such  is  destiny  ?     Another  year 
Succeedeth  to  the  past.     In  their  bright  round 
The  seasons  come  and  go  ;  the  same  blue  arch 
That  hath  hung  o'er  us  will  hang  o'er  us  yet ; 
The  same  pure  stars  that  we  have  loved  to  watch 
Will  blossom  still,  at  twilight's  gentle  hour, 
Like  lilies  on  the  tomb  of  day — and  still 
Man  will  remain  to  dream  as  he  hath  dreamed 
And  mark  the  earth  with  passion." 

JOSEPH  W.  WiNANS,in  Sacramento  Union  Dec.  31,  1858. 


GLIMPSES. 

WHEN  the  lost  traveler's  weary  heart  is  sorest, 
As  the  storm  rages  o'er  the  midnight  sky, 

The  finger  of  the  lightning  through  the  forest 
Points  to  the  friendly  village  sleeping  by. 

So  God,  in  the  deep  fullness  of  his  pity, 
Reveals  by  sudden  flashes  to  our  sight, 

The  shadowy  outlines  of  that  glorious  city, 
Where  in  his  radiance  there  is  no  more  ni^ht. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  541 

Sometimes  there  glimmers,  as  a  star  at  twilight, 
A  ray  that  seems  to  heaven  a  guiding  mark ; 

Anon,  a  flood,  as  from  a  wondrous  skylight, 

Till  the  full  soul,  blinded  with  light,  grows  dark. 

All  the  day  long,  as  on  a  stream-swept  willow, 

The  waves  of  care  our  aching  spirits  rock ; 
But  night  brings  visions  to  the  peaceful  pillow, 

That  all  the  sorrows  of  the  daylight  mock. 

As  through  cathedral  walls  are  heard  the  whispers 

Of  solemn  voices  murmuring  the  mass ; 
Or  through  the  chapel  door,  at  twilight  vespers, 

In  vapory  clouds  the  sacred  perfumes  pass. 

So  echo  the  voices  of  departed  legions, 

In  the  sweet  stillness  of  the  midnight  hours ; 

And  from  the  fair  fields  of  God's  summer  regions, 
Creeps  the  pure  incense  of  undying  flowers. 

These  sights  and  sounds  of  moments  most  entrancing, 
Pierce  the  dark  caverns  of  the  doubting  mind; 

And  help  our  \veak  hearts,  in  our  slow  advancing, 
To  leave  the  burdens  of  the  world  behind. 

O  light  of  lights !   strengthen  our  feeble  vision  ! 

O  voice  of  voices  !  make  the  whispers  clear ; 
For  life  would  be,  indeed,  a  life  elysian, 

Could  we  but  feel  that  thou  wert  ever  near. 

EMILIE  LAWSON. 


THE    HAPPY    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


OTHING  is  more  sacred  in  memory,  nothing 
more  beautiful  and  blessed  in  its  influence,  than 
the  abiding  joy  of  which  the  well-spring  is  in  a 
charming  home.  If  it  was  ours  in  childhood, 
the  gentle  stream  of  pleasure  it  sent  forth  has 
cheered  and  gladdened  us  along  all  life' s  weary  way .  If 


542  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

it  is  ours  in  manhood,  we  come  to  it  from  the  deserts  and 
toil  of  other  scenes,  and  are  evermore  refreshed  and  made 
stronger  and  happier  by  its  clear  and  abundant  waters.  If 
both  our  early  and  later  years  have  been  made  by  it  to 
exhibit  the  verdure  and  the  fruits  which  constitute  the 
value  and  beauty  of  life,  we  have  known  its  designed  and 
delightful  power  to  relieve  a  world  of  sin  of  many  of  its 
evils. 

.  As  we  look  back  upon  the  home  within  which  were  our 
cradles  and  our  first  experiences,  and  around  which  cluster 
our  hallowed  memories,  we  do  not  find  that  these  relate 
only  to  the  house,  the  scenes,  or  even  the  dear  ones,  that  all 
come  so  freshly  before  us,  summoned  by  the  magic  word, 
u  Home  "—for  not  all  these  compose  it— it  was  more,  though 
we  find  it  difficult  to  define  it.  It  was  the  charm  that  dwelt 
with  it  in  us— the  spirit  that  breathed  in  no  other  place  such 
blessings  as  were  there— the  very  air  that  lingered  around 
all  its  associations,  and  gave  a  sacredness  to  all  its  routine 
of  daily  life,  with  those  who  seemed  almost  a  part  of  our 
selves  ;  it  was  all  these  that  composed  our  home.  The  faces 
of  the  family,  the  furniture  of  the  several  rooms,  the  house 
hold  altar,  the  family  Bible,  the  rules  we  were  to  obey,  the 
books  we  read,  the  lessons  we  received,  the  papers  with 
which  we  were  familiar,  the  peaceful  hours  of  fireside  con 
verse,  and  many  items  more,  were  all  elements  of  home,  and 
helped  to  form  its  spell  upon  us,  as  they  were  combined 
and  transfigured  by  the  love  that  presided  over  all,  and 
possessed  all. 

We  remember  the  instruction  from  the  Word  of  God,  the 
catechism,  the  primer,  and  the  school-books.  And  we  re 
member  the  hours,  at  evening,  when  pleasant  family  reading 
was  enjoyed  by  all,  followed  by  those  varied  exercises,  with 
games,  and  puzzles,  and  riddles,  and  charades,  and  other 
modes  of  recreation  which  seem  to  have  secret  bonds  in 
them,  with  which  to  unite  a  family.  And  we  remember 
the  nursery  and  the  play-room,  with  all  their  equipments 
and  sports,  in  which  mingled  not  the  children  only,  but 
where  father  and  mother  loved  to  come,  to  be  happy  with 
the  little  ones,  while  they  contributed  to  their  "fun."  Yes  : 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  543 

all  those  faces  and  scenes,  and  silver-footed  hours,  come 
back  to  ns,  in  after-life,  with  indescribable  yet  real  ministry 
of  good  ;  and  we  feel  that  they  are  to  be  rebuked,  if  they 
are  not  absolutely  wicked,  who  feel  no  interest  in  making 
the  childhood  of  the  little  ones  within  their  circles  as  happy 
as  may  be,  and  their  home  as  charming  as  our  Father  in 
tended  it  to  be.  Such  a  sunshiny  childhood  is  like  a  head 
light  on  an  engine,  sending  its  rays  far  out  on  the  track  of 
life,  to  cheer  and  guide,  whatever  the  region  through  which 
we  may  pass.  Such  a  home  is  like  the  love  by  which  it  is 
made  radiant — a  perpetual  fountain  of  comfort,  and  pleas 
ure,  and  good.— Rev.  JAMES  EELLS,  D.D.,  in  The  Occident, 
January  4,  1868. 


EARLY    HISTORY    OF   JOSEPH    SMITH,    THE    MORMON   LEADER. 


KNEW  him  well  before  his  book  was  pub 
lished.  He  was  then  a  wood-cutter  on  my  farm, 
more  willing  to  live  by  his  wits  than  his  ax, 
and  worked  through  the  winter,  in  company 
with  some  twenty  or  thirty  others,  rough  back 
woodsmen.  He  and  his  two  associates  built  a  rude  cabin 
of  poles  and  brush  in  the  woods,  covered  it  with  leaves 
and  earth,  open  to  the  south,  a  camp-kettle  in  front  for 
cooking  ;  and  here,  at  night,  around  a  huge  lire,  lie  and  his 
companions  would  gather,  ten  or  a  dozen  at  a  time,  to  tell 
stories  and  sing  songs,  and  drink  cheap  whisky  (two  shil 
lings  a  gallon),  and  although  there  were  some  hard  cases 
among  them,  Joe  could  beat  them  all  for  tough  stories  and 
impracticable  adventures,  and  it  was  in  this  school,  I 
believe,  that  he  first  conceived  the  wonderful  invention  of 
the  golden  plates  and  marvelous  revelations.  And  as  these 
exercises  were  rehearsed  nightly  to  his  hearers,  and  as  their 
ears  grew  longer  to  receive  them,  so  his  tales  grew  the  more 
marvelous  to  please  them,  until  some  of  them  supposed 
that  he  also  believed  his  own  stories.  But  of  this  fact  there 


544  CALIFORNIA   SCPtAP-BOOK. 

is  no  proof.  He  was  impudent  and  assuming  among  his 
fellows,  but  ignorant  and  dishonest,  plausible  and  obsequi 
ous  to  others,  with  sufficient  low  cunning  to  conceal  his 
ignorance,  but,  in  my  estimation,  utterly  unqualified  to  com 
pose,  even  such  a  jumble  of  truth  and  fiction  as  this  book 
contained. 

The  most  probable  theory  of  its  origin  that  I  remember 
to  have  heard,  is  that  it  was  the  strange  work  of  an  eccen 
tric  Vermont  clergyman,  written  to  while  away  the  tedious 
hours  of  long  confinement  by  nervous  debility,  and  that 
this  idle  production,  after  his  decease,  fell  into  Joe's  hands, 
and  that  having  learned  something  of  the  gullibility  of  his 
cronies,  this  incidental  matter  incited  in  him  the  first  idea 
of  turning  his  foolish  stories  to  account,  and  thus  enable 
him  to  make  the  surreptitious  manuscript  the  text-book  of 
his  gross  imposition.  I  speak  understandingly  in  saying  he 
was  shameless  as  well  as  dishonest,  and  I  relate  a  small 
matter  to  prove  it. 

During  the  winter  he  was  chopping  for  me,  I  was  in  the 
habit  of  riding  through  the  clearing  daily  to  see  that  the 
brush  was  piled  as  agreed,  the  wood  fairly  corded,  and  no 
scattering  trees  left  uncut,  and  in  this  way  became  well 
acquainted  with  the  conduct  of  every  man,  and  on  each  Sat 
urday  took  an  account  and  paid  the  hands.  My  mode  was 
to  ride  around  while  each  party  measured  their  ranks  and 
turned  a  few  sticks  on  the  top  to  show  that  they  had  been 
counted.  In  this  way  I  one  day  took  Joe's  account,  he 
accompanying  me  and  removing  the  sticks  on  the  top  of 
each  rank.  After  thus  going  the  rounds  and  returning  to 
the  shanty,  he  said  he  had  another  rank  or  two  that  I  had 
not  seen,  and  led  me  in  a  different  direction,  in  a  roundabout 
way,  to  wood  that  I  had  already  measured,  but  the  sticks 
on  top  had  all  been  laid  back  to  their  places.  I  saw  the 
trick  at  once,  and  could  only  make  him  confess  his  attempt 
to  cheat  by  re-measuring  the  whole  lot ;  and  all  this  he 
thought  would  have  been  a  fair  trick  if  I  had  not  found  it 
out.  So  much  for  the  man  in  small  things. 

After  he  had  left  in  the  spring,  I  lost  sight  of  him  until 
my  friend  Judge  Whiting  (long  since  deceased),  of  the  very 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  545 

respectable  firm  of  Whiting  &  Butler,  attorneys,  who  was 
then  loaning  money  on  mortgages  for  a  trust  company, 
asked  me  if  I  knew  any  thing  about  Joe  Smith.  I  told  him 
that  I  knew  him  for  a  great  rogue  in  a  small  way,  when  he 
informed  me  that  he  pretended  to  be  a  prophet,  and  was 
about  publishing  a  Book  of  Revelations  ;  and  had  induced 
two  credulous  men  in  Palmyra  to  apply  to  him  (Judge 
Whiting)  for  money  on  mortgage  to  publish  it.  I  learned 
afterward  that  Joe  and  an  associate  had  prevailed  on  a 

worthy  citizen  of  Waterloo  (Colonel  C ),  who  was  then 

in  a  state  of  great  depression  from  the  recent  loss  of  his 
wife,  to  join  their  fraternity  and  cast  in  his  lot  among  them  ; 
and  that  while  they  were  at  his  house  taking  an  inventory 
of  his  effects  for.  the  purpose,  his  son,  a  spirited  young  man, 
came  in,  and  on  finding  what  they  were  about,  threatened 
them  so  strongly  with  a  prosecution  as  swindlers,  that  they 
left  for  the  time  until  his  father  had  recovered  from  his  de 
lusion,  and  thus  escaped  them. 

I  know  nothing  further  of  his  doings  here,  but  after  his 
removal  to  Ohio,  when  he  established  a  bank  that  failed,  I 
was  shown  one  of  his  bills,  and  I  recollect  that  on  examin 
ing  it,  I  thought  the  device  on  the  face  of  it  was  most  admi 
rably  appropriate — viz.,  a  sturdy  fellow  shearing  a  sheep. 
— Rochester  Union. 


NO   BABY   IN   THE    HOUSE. 

No  BABY  in  the  house  I  know — 

'Tis  far  too  nice  and  clean ; 
No  toys  by  careless  fingers  strewn 

Upon  the  floors  are  seen. 
No  finger-marks  are  on  the  panes, 

No  scratches  on  the  chairs, 
No  wooden  men  set  up  in  rows, 

Or  marshaled  off  in  pairs ; 
No  little  stockings  to  be  darned, 

All  ragged  at  the  toes, 
No  pile  of  mending  to  be  done, 

Made  up  of  baby-clothes  ; 
35 


546  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

No  little  troubles  to  be  soothed, 

No  little  hands  to  fold ; 
No  grimy  fingers  to  be  washed, 

No  stories  to  be  told  ; 
No  tender  kisses  to  be  given, 

No  nick-names — "  Clove  "  and  "  Mouse  ;" 
No  merry  frolics  after  tea — 

No  baby  in  the  house. 

CLARA  DOLLIVER. 


GEOLOGICAL,   FORMATION    OF   THE    RIVER   AMAZON. 


>UMMARY  of  a  lecture  of  Prof.  Louis  Agassiz, 
at  the  Cooper  Institute,  New  York  :— 

This  year  will  witness  an  event  of  no  small 
importance  to  commerce  and  civilization.  It 
has  pleased  the  Emperor  of  Brazil  to  decree 
that  the  Valley  of  the  Amazon  shall  "be  open 
to  the  commerce  of  the  world  on  September  7th,  a  great  day 
in  Brazil,  as  it  is  their  Fourth  of  July.  This  fact  suggests 
some  lectures  on  the  valley,  that  our  community  may 
become  acquainted  with  its  physical  features  and  capabili 
ties,  and  that  those  who  care,  may  be  prepared  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  advantages  of  that  great  inland  sea. 
Like  all  other  irregularities  of  the  earth,  the  Valley  of  the 
Amazon  owes  its  present  appearance  to  a  succession  of 
events  occurring  at  long  intervals — to  those  geological 
periods  which  have  made  our  earth  what  it  is  now.  "  In 
order  to  understand  fully  the  facts  I  have  been  able  to 
collect,"  said  the  Professor,  "  it  is  necessary  to  recall  a  few 
of  those  principles  necessary  for  the  due  appreciation  of 
the  geological  constitution  of  any  country.  I  wish  I  could 
dispense  with  the  preface,  but,  unfortunately,  geology  is 
not  part  of  our  elementary  education — it  is  not  always  apart 
of  an  advanced  education — yet  as  a  science  it  has  made  such 
progress  that  it  is  a  fundamental  principle  and  should  be 
understood  by  all,  just  as  all  understand  certain  elementary 
facts  pertaining  to  every  branch  of  human  knowledge." 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  547 

He  then  explained  how  no  part  of  the  globe  owes  its 
present  appearance  to  any  sudden  change.  It  has  been  the 
result  of  time.  There  is  no  inequality  of  the  earth' s  surface 
that  does  not  owe  its  outline  to  disintegration,  and  the  form 
of  the  sea- shore  has  been  traced  out  by  the  waves.  There 
is  no  tract  of  land  that  does  not  owe  its  peculiar  constitu 
tion  to  geological  agencies.  This  world  was  once  a  globe 
of  fire,  without  an  atmosphere,  and  uncovered  by  water. 
Later  a  crust  formed,  and  still  later  this  crust  cooled  so  that 
it  condensed  the  vapors  that  surrounded  it.  The  action  of 
the  moon  created  tides,  and  their  alternate  ebb  and  flow  had 
their  own  effect  in  determining  the  shape  of  the  beds.  By 
the  agency  of  fire  and  water  the  earth  assumed  a  form  that 
rendered  it  habitable,  first  by  one  kind  of  animals  and  then 
by  another,  according  as  it  became  gradually  cool.  The 
configuration  of  the  earth  was  changed,  first  an  island,  then 
a  continent,  appearing  above  the  sea,  then  gradual  modifi 
cations  of  the  surface  until  it  was  habitable  by  plants  and 
animals  as  at  present.  Some  portions  of  the  earth's  surface 
are  older  than  others.  Thus  in  South  America,  the  table 
lands  of  Guiana,  are  older  than  those  of  Brazil,  while  the 
range  of  the  Andes  is  younger.  Guiana  rose  first  an  island 
in  the  middle  of  the  sea,  then  Brazil  sprung  up,  and  lastly 
the  Andes.  In  the  same  way  the  North  American  Continent 
was  formed,  the  great  Canadian  table-land  north  of  the 
capes,  extending  from  Labrador  to  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
was  first  formed,  then  the  Alleghanian  range,  and  lastly 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  oldest  mountain  ranges  being  the 
smallest  in  size.  The  mountain  ranges  and  the  serried  form 
of  the  earth  are  due  to  upheavals  and  contractions.  The 
cooling  of  the  earth  produced  contractions,  and  conse 
quently  a  falling  in.  Geologists  are  able  to  tell  from  an 
examination  of  different  strata  which  is  the  oldest,  with 
quite  as  much  certainty  as  an  archaeologist  can  determine 
the  age  of  a  coin  or  of  a  marble.  All  deposits  are  made 
horizontally,  and  can  only  be  changed  by  some  effort  of 
nature.  Thus  we  find  a  regular  series  of  rocks,  azoic,  silu- 
rian,  devonian,  carboniferous,  permian,  triassic,  Jurassic, 
cretaceous,  eocene,  meiocene,  pleiocene,  and  the  deposits 


548 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


which  are  forming  at  present.  It  is  known  that  in  creta 
ceous  strata,  for  instance,  certain  fossils  are  found,  and  where- 
ever  these  are  found  it  is  inferred  that  the  strata  are  of  the 
same  age.  By  such  means  are  the  synchronism  of  strata 
determined.  Following  this  principle,  we  can  say  that 
Guiana  is  older  than  Brazil. 

Professor  Agassiz  then  alluded  to  the  constant  change 
going  on  in  the  valleys  of  the  Amazon,  Orinoco  and  Para 
guay.  He  stated  also  that  the  peculiar  form  of  this  con 
tinent  leads  us  to  believe  that  formerly  it  was  covered  with 
ice.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  connected 
with  the  Valley  of  the  Amazon,  is  the  immense  alluvial 
deposit  which  fills  the  whole  bottom  of  the  basin,  from  the 
foot  of  the  Andes  to  the  Atlantic,  and  which  has  been 
washed  from  the  side  rocks.  This  will  form  the  subject  of 
the  next  lecture. — American  Journal  of  Mining. 


VELOCITY    AND    FORCE    OF    WIND. 


Appellations. 

Just  perceptible 

Gentle,  pleasant  wind 

Pleasant,  brisk  gale 

Very  brisk 

High  wind 

Very  high  wind 

Storm  or  tempest 

Great  storm 

Hurricane 

Tornado,  moving  buildings,  &c. 


Mean  velocity  in 
Miles  per  hour.      Feet  per  second. 


2k 


50 

60 

80 

100 


3f 

6| 

18* 
33 


73* 

88 


146.7 


Force  in  Ibs. 
per  sq.  ft. 

•032 

1-01 

•80 

2-52 

5-23 

8-92 

12-30 

17-71 

31-49 

49-20 


HOME    PICTURES. 


COME  !  if  you  care 

For  pictures  most  fair, 
That  brighten  the  homes  of  the  lowly, 

All  over  our  land, 

Done  by  the  hand 
Of  love,  that  artist  most  holy. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  549 

Here  on  my  knee, 

Laughing  at  me, 
This  is  the  picture  I'd  show  you ; 

How  his  eyes  shine, 

This  baby  of  mine, 
You'd  say  he  was  sweet,  if  I  know  you. 

Now  for  the  show ! 

A  moving  tableau, 
('Tis  only  the  baby  undressing), 

Loosen  the  strings, 

Slip  the  wee  things 
Off  the  plump  limbs  they  were  pressing. 

Dimples  and  curves, 

Delicate  nerves, 
See,  how  he  starts  when  you  touch  him ! 

Sister  and  brother 

Crowd  close  to  mother, 
Ever  delighted  to  watch  him. 

Round  dimpled  chin — 

Velvety  skin — 
Smother  the  darling  with  kisses ! 

How  perfect  his  hand  ; 

Do  you  think,  in  the  land, 
There's  a  baby  that's  sweeter  than  this  is  ? 

Nicely  he  feels ! 

His  rose-tinted  heels, 
Like  bird-wings,  are  fluttering  and  flying ; 

Slip  on  his  gown — 

That  makes  him  frown — 
Don't  spoil  the  bright  picture  by  crying. 

Now,  as  he  lies, 
He  seems  to  my  eyes, 

With  the  children  thus  bending  around  him ; 
Repeating  the  scene 
Of  that  Infant  serene, 
Who  rejoiced  the  wise  men  when  they  found  him. 

BELLE  W.  COOKE, 
in  The  Pacific,  January,  1868. 


550  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


TRIP    TO    YOSEMITE    VALLEY. 


By  a  Lady  Correspondent  of  the  "Sacramento  Union, 

June,  1868. 


START    FROM    COULTERVILLE. 


E  made  an  odd  and  picturesque  tableau  as  we 
stood  on  the  balcony  of  Coulter' s  hotel,  ready 
to  mount  our  horses  for  the  Yosemite  Valley, 
the  gentlemen  looking  like  a  cross-cut  between 
brigadier-generals  and  highway  robbers,  and 
we  ladies  like  so  many  pages  or  little  peasant 
chaps  in  our  jaunty  and  bewitching  toilets.  Now  we  con 
fess  to  nearly  a  religious  veneration  for  floating  drapery, 
and  we  certainly  feel  very  queenly  in  our  sweeping  robes  in 
the  parlor,  but  this  has  nothing  to  do  with  such  a  trip. 
Every  lady  contemplating  this  visit  anxiously  wonders  how 
to  dress  for  it.  Common  sense  tells  her  that  she  can  not  ride 
along  narrow,  rock-bound  trails,  ford  streams,  climb  almost 
perpendicular,  rocky,  bush-grown  cliffs,  liable  to  accidental 
slips  and  tumbles  and  somersaults,  in  long  skirts.  All 
of  our  most  refined  and  fastidious  ladies  who  have  enjoyed 
that  never-to-be-forgotten  trip  went  prepared  with  bloom 
ers,  or  were  glad  to  use  scissors  and  needle  in  improvising 
such  a  suit  before  getting  to  the  valley.  We  wore  a  stiff, 
broad-brimmed  straw  hat,  a  handsomely  fitting  waist,  with 
a  gored  skirt  reaching  just  below  the  knee,  bloomer  pants 
with  a  little  band  buttoning  ad  libitum  above  the  high- 
laced,  thick  balmoral  boot,  a  tiny  collar  and  necktie,  and 
buckskin  gauntlets ;  dress,  pants,  stockings,  and  hat  of  a 
brown  color.  We  tied  a  warm  sack  on  the  horn  of  our  sad 
dle,  but  rarely  needed  it,  although  we  were  so  early  in  the 
season.  If  we  did  not  look  pretty  and  get  along  comforta 
bly,  then  a  large  number  of  persons  were  guilty  of  perjury, 
for  they  vowed  we  did,  and  our  vanity  was  perfectly  satis 
fied.  So  away  and  away  we  galloped  up  the  beautiful  hills 
beyond  Coulterville,  and  after  refreshments  of  bread  and 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  551 

milk,  and  a  delightful  exploration  of  Bower  Cave,  contin 
ued  on  a  trail  cut  in  the  mountain  side,  amid  wild,  romantic 
scenery.     Growing  weary  toward  the  close  of  day,  when 
the  wind  had  commenced  a  miserere  in  the  pine-tree  tops, 
and  the  primo-basso  and  prima-donna  frogs  tuned  up  for  a 
monster  concert,  it  was  with  thankful  feelings  that  we  saw 
Black' s  rose-enwreathed  cottages  appear.    After  a  delicious 
rest  we  were  off  next  morning  at  an  early  hour,  following 
the   same   beautiful  flower-embroidered  trail,   and   deeply 
drinking  in  the  sweet  mountain  air.    A  succession  of  charm 
ing  tableaux  were  presented  to  our  sight;  now  a  miner's 
cabin  by  a  sparkling  streamlet  down  the  dimpling  dell ; 
then  a  bewildering  flitter  of  blue-birds  and  gorgeous  butter 
flies,  and  graceful  squirrels,  and  frightened  bonnie  rabbits  ; 
then  an  Indian  camp  by  the  moss-covered  logs— the  dirty, 
picturesque  squaws  catching  grasshoppers  in  the  meadow 
beyond ;    and  oh  !   picture  of  pictures !    the  glory  of  the 
fresh  sunlight  over  those  mountains  and  the  grace  of  the 
morning    shadows   from  the    pine-trees !      Ah,   entrancing 
Parepa  Rosa,  your  "Five  o'clock  in  the  Morning "  would 
have  been  out-caroled  by  the  liquid  trill  and  the  flute-notes 
from  linnet  and  redbreast  and  blackbird  !    How  our  bound 
ing  spirits  pealed  forth  in  shout  and  song,  frightening  a 
whole  tree-full  of  birds,  and  making  the  foot-hills  of  the  old 
Sierras  ring  again  and  again !     How  exhilarating  the  ride 
over  the  snow-drifts,  and  how  delicious  the  luncheon  on  the 
log  by  the   cool  brook.      My  eyes  never  beheld   such  a 
wealth  of  tree  scenery.     Pines  and  cedars  seven  and  eight 
feet  in  diameter,  and  graceful  balsam,  fir  and  spruce,  all 
forming  clean-sweeping  aisles  over  the  hillsides  and  down 
through  the  sun-flooded  dell. 


TOSEMITB    AND    ITS    WONDERS.     ' 

How  the  grandeur  and  overwhelming  majesty  of  that  rock 
scenery  thrilled  us  with  a  sublime  recognition  of  Jehovah' s 
power,  and  inspired  our  senses  to  a  nearer  communion  with 
the  author  of  these  mysterious  wonders  \  It  seemed  a  lit 


552  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

place  for  the  Judgment ;  and  I  thought  of  the  Crucifixion 
as  I  looked  upon  those  cleft  mountains. 

We  saluted  El  Capitan.  This  is  a  magnificent  battlement 
of  polished,  unscarred  granite,  nearly  4,000  feet  in  height ; 
the  only  ornament  on  its  clean-cut  surface  a  flourishing  pine 
growing  out  of  its  side,  2,500  feet  from  its  base — a  faithful 
Picciola  in  its  way. 

Sentinel  Rock,  the  Cathedral  Spires,  and  the  snow-flecked, 
sun-gilt  Domes — one  of  them  over  6,000  feet  in  height — im 
pressed  me  inexpressibly. 

We  climbed  the  difficult,  slippery  rocks,  and,  drenched 
by  the  mist,  clapped  our  hands  and  shouted  in  ecstasy  as 
we  stood  in  the  sway  of  the  Bridal  Yeil  (940  feet  in  height), 
enwreathed  with  rainbows  of  the  most  gorgeously  defined 
colors.  Transported  with  the  beauty  of  the  scene,  I  fan 
cied  old  Kuhleborn  rising  from  the  running  waters,  and 
seemed  to  hear  the  sweet  voice  of  Undine— (Undine  !  what 
beguiling  melody  in  the  name  !)— as  she  floated  down  like  a 
pure  white  dove  in  the  wafting  spray.  I  was  awakened 
from  this  enrapturing  and  seductive  dream  by  one  of  our 
chivalric  Huldbrands  drawing  me  away  from  my  dangerous 
position.  So  I  pleased  my  fancy  by  calling  the  unnamed 
cataract  into  which  these  waters  fell,  Undine's  Retreat. 
Then  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley  we  sprang  from 
rock  to  bowlder  over  the  torrent,  to  revel  in  the  beauty  and 
grace  of  the  Ribbon  Fall. 

In  our  visit  to  the  lower  Yosemite  Fall,  we  walked  over 
an  immense  ice-bridge,  thirty  feet  in  thickness,  which 
spanned  the  cataract  into  which  the  whole  fall  of  2,600  feet 
plunged.  The  furious,  maddened  waters,  tore  down  the 
rocky  chasm,  occasionally  excavating  and  breaking  away 
portions  of  this  bridge.  The  heat  of  the  rich  green,  silver 
firs,  melted  the  snow  and  ice  away  from  their  bark,  leaving 
a  depth  of  from  thirty  to  forty  feet  down  which  we  could 
look  into  the  furious  cataract.  We  conceived  the  happy 
idea  of  further  gratifying  our  curiosity  by  creeping  on  all- 
fours  to  the  extremest,  dangerous  slippery  point,  and  look 
ing  into  the  awful  basin  ;  the  sight  was  fearful.  The  waters 
rushed  and  surged  and  tore  madly  down  among  the  rocks  and 


FIVEESITT 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  553 

bowlders  like  demons,  and  the  noise,  with  that  of  the  falls, 
was  like  thunder.  Growing  still  bolder  on  our  carteb-lanche 
privileges,  we  walked  a  big  log  over  one  part  of  the  broken 
bridge,  and  hunching  along  in  bifurcated  style  on  a  thin  pine 
for  forty  feet  across  this  dizzy  torrent,  we  came  to  a  spot 
from  which  we  could  see  what  a  fearful  risk  we  had  run  in 
lying  down  and  looking  over  from  that  ice  point.  It  ap 
peared  like  a  great  clear-cut  white  clipper-ship  of  ice,  perfect 
in  style  and  grace,  plowing  through  the  raging  waters  ;  and 
from  the  thin  crust  of  the  bow  several  of  us  had  thrown  our 
whole  weight  in  order  to  peer  overboard.  Coleridge's 
< '  Ancient  Mariner ' '  all  loomed  up  before  me  in  a  strange, 
weird  way. 

I  remember  Hutchings  saying  that  at  the  base  of  this 
upper  fall,  last  winter,  an  immense  hill  of  snow  and  ice 
formed,  the  gently  falling  waters  wearing  a  basin  forty  feet 
deep  in  it,  into  which,  later,  as  the  water  increased  in 
volume,  the  sixteen  hundred  feet  fall  pitched,  rebounding 
to  a  height  of  six  hundred  feet,  fluting  out  like  a  fountain, 
the  whole  covered  with  rainbows. 

We  climbed  the  rocky,  exhausting  trail  to  this  point. 
Looking  up  the  awful  chasm,  through  the  drenching  spray, 
we  beheld  the  Yosemite  River,  from  its  foaming  brink,  fall 
1,600  feet  in  loops  and  curves  and  rockets,  spending  them 
selves  and  re-forming  and  thundering  down  the  chasm,  the 
foam  and  mist,  with  a  wonderful  grace,  rolling  up  and 
softening  away  some  of  the  terror  from  the  scene.  Pillars 
of  snowy  clouds  drifted  about  the  peaks,  seeming  to  melt 
into  the  bosom  of  the  waters.  All  around  us  were  those 
fear-inspiring  Egyptian  walls,  and  far,  far  below  us  the 
lovely,  peaceful  meadow-land,  its  200- feet  pines  appearing 
like  mere  bushes,  and  its  streams  and  lakes  like  lines  and 
spots  of  silver. 

Then  homeward  returning,  the  valley  bird' s  flute-notes  to 
the  accompaniment  of  that  grand  organ,  we  culled  and 
pressed  the  tenderest,  tiny  white  violets,  that  peeped  like 
snow-flakes  from  the  grass,  and  magnificent  azalias  and 
radiant  oriflamme  blossoms,  and  delicate  leaves  and  ferns 
from  the  bank-side  of  the  bonny  Merced  (River  of  Mercy). 


554  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

It  is  a  hard  climb  to  and  up  the  ladders,  and  thence  past 
the  Vernal  to  the  Nevada  Fall  of  700  feet.  We  made  an 
awkward-looking  squad  on  that  forced  march.  Think  of  us 
ladies,  completely  lost  in  gentlemen's  india  rubber  coats 
and  boots  (number  eights),  our  lovely  immense  hats  wilted, 
and,  led  by  an  elegant  fastidious  Parisian  who  couldn'  t  speak 
a  word  of  English,  but  was  having  a  good  time  in  mon  Dieu- 
ing,  and  was  forever  si  charme  and  si  fatigue,  and  tout 
mouille  and  tout  tue — angry  one  minute  and  full  of  graceful 
compliments  to  the  ladies  the  next,  who  looked  more  like 
Satan's  imps  than  like  things  of  beauty,  or  any  prospect  of 
being  a  joy  forever. 

The  Nevada  coquettishly  floats  off  to  one  side  and  falls 
and  pauses,  and  falls  and  plays  hide-and-seek  among  the 
rainbows  till  it  plunges  into  the  river.  Here  we  crept  on  to 
a  log  that  had  drifted  out,  and  sat  enjoying  the  most  en 
chanting  sight  imaginable.  The  waters  tumbled  and  capered 
among  the  rocks  for  a  long  distance,  then  dashingly  swept 
down  a  long,  smooth,  inclined  plane  of  granite.  Then  lash 
ing  up  in  snowy-capped  waves,  flashing  in  the  sunlight, 
they  rushed  on  tumultuously,  driving  over  the  cliff,  thus 
forming  the  Vernal  Fall  of  350  feet.  This  cataract  of  dia 
monds,  with  its  wealth  of  rainbows,  assuredly  takes  prece 
dence  in  fascinating  beauty.  There  is  a  delightful  point 
from  which  no  sketch  has  ever  been  made.  From  the  top 
of  the  ladders  the  side  view  of  the  Vernal,  the  Cap  of  Lib 
erty  beyond,  and  the  curving,  emerald-tinted  foam  sweep 
ing  in  cascades  and  off  in  a  willful  line  of  grace  down  the 
valley — this  is  one  of  the  loveliest  pictures  that  hangs  on 
my  memory's  wall. 

As  to  Mirror  Lake,  it  is  gloriously  beautiful.  As  we  shot 
at  a  mark  on  its  margin,  my  very  hat  seemed  fascinated  by 
the  spirit  of  beauty  smiling  from  its  ripples  arid  ambitioned 
to  sail  over  it.  Luckily,  thanks  to  a  good  deal  of  screaming 
and  a  long  fishing-pole,  the  truant  was  towed  back  and  an 
chored  on  a  rock  to  dry,  whilst  I  wandered  about  getting 
wild  flowers  and  new  impressions  every  moment — especially 
of  tan.  I  must  have  been  an  enchanting  picture  of  dejection 
and  defeat  as  I  planted  the  wilted  hat  on  my  head  and 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


555 


walked  along  over  the  rocks  to  the  horses,  with  a  melan 
choly,  Robert  Macaire  appearance. 

But  every  lake  and  puddle  in  the  whole  valley  is  a  clear 
mirror,  with  the  falls  reversed  and  the  walls  also,  the  pines 
on  their  summits  looking  like  tassels  and  fringes  in  the  re 
flection. 

But  no  painting  by  word,  or  pen,  or  color  can  convey  to 
any  one  those  soul-tilling  pictures,  which  I  wish  all  lovers 
of  nature  could  themselves  see  and  feel,  and  put  away  in 
the  treasure-house  of  beautiful  and  glorious  things,  to  carry 
with  them  a  joy  forever  ! 


HISTORICAL    RECORD. 

THE  following  is  a  list  of  Presidents  and  Yice-Presidents 
of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  those  who  were  candidates 
for  each  office,  since  the  organization  of  the  Government  :— 

1789.— George  Washington  and  John  Adams  ;  two  terms 
without  opposition. 

1797.— John  Adams,  opposed  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  who, 
having  the  next  highest  electoral  vote,  became  Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

1801. — Thomas  Jefferson  and  Aaron  Burr,  beating  John 
Adams  and  Charles  C.  Pinckney. 

1805.— Thomas  Jefferson  and  George  Clinton,  beating 
Charles  C.  Pinckney  and  Rufus  King. 

1809.— James  Madison  and  George  Clinton,  beating 
Charles  C.  Pinckney. 

1813.— James  Madison  and  Eldridsre  Gerry,  beating  De 
Witt  Clinton. 

1817.—  James  Monroe  and  Daniel  E.  Tompkins,  beating 
Rufus  King. 

1821.—  James  Monroe  and  Daniel  E.  Tompkins,  no  op 
position,  and  only  one  dissenting  vote. 

1825.— John  Q.  Adams  and  John  C.  Calhoun,  beating 
Andrew  Jackson,  Henry  Clay,  and  Mr.  Crawford,  there 
being  four  candidates  for  President,  and  Albert  Gallatin  for 
Vice-President 


556  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

1829. — Andrew  Jackson  and  John  C.  Calhonn,  beating 
John  Q.  Adams  and  Richard  Rush. 

1833. — Andrew  Jackson  and  Martin  Van  Buren,  beating 
Henry  Clay,  John  Floyd,  and  William  Wirt  for  President, 
William.  Wilkins,  John  Sargent,  and  Henry  Lee  for  Vice- 
President. 

1837. — Martin  Van  Buren  and  Richard  M.  Johnson,  beat 
ing  William  H.  Harrison,  Hugh  L.  White,  and  Daniel  Web 
ster  for  President,  and  John  Tyler  for  Vice-President. 

1841. — William  H.  Harrison  and  John  Tyler,  beating 
Martin  Van  Buren  and  I.  W.  Tazewell.  Harrison  died  one 
month  after  his  inauguration,  and  John  Tyler  became  Pres 
ident  for  the  remainder  of  the  term. 

1845. — James  K.  Polk  and  George  M.  Dallas,  beating 
Henry  Clay  and  Theodore  Frelinghuysen. 

1849. — Zachary  Taylor  and  Millard  Fillmore,  beating 
Lewis  Cass  and  Martin  Van  Buren  for  President,  and  Wil 
liam  0.  Butler  and  Charles  F.  Adams  for  Vice-Presiderit. 

1853. — Franklin  Pierce  and  William  R.  King,  beating 
Winfield  Scott  and  W.  A.  Graham. 

1857. — James  Buchanan  and  John  C.  Breckinridge,  beat 
ing  John  C.  Fremont  and  Millard  Fillmore  for  President, 
and  William  L.  Dayton  and  A.  J.  Donelson  for  Vice-Pres 
ident. 

1861. — Abraham  Lincoln  and  Hannibal  Hamlin,  beating 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  John  C.  Breckinridge,  and  John  Bell 
for  President,  and  Edward  Everett,  Herschel  V.  Johnson, 
and  Joseph  Lane  for  Vice-President. 

1865. — Abraham  Lincoln  and  Andrew  Johnson,  beating 
George  B.  McClellan  and  George  H.  Pendleton. 

1869. — Ulysses  S.  Grant  and  Schuyler  Colfax,  beating 
Horatio  Seymour  and  Frank  P.  Blair. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  557 


NOSE    BLEED. 


[HERE  are  two  little  arteries  which  supply  the 
whole  face  with  blood,  one  on  each  side  ;  these 
branch  off  from  the  main  arteries  on  each  side 
of  the  windpipe,  and  running  upward  toward 
the  eye,  over  the  outside  of  the  jaw-bone,  about 
two-thirds  of  the  way  back  from  the  chin  to  the 
angle  of  the  jaw,  under  the  ear.  Each  of  these  arteries  of 
course,  supplies  just  one-half  the  face,  the  nose  being  the 
dividing  line  ;  the  left  nostril  is  supplied  with  blood  by  the 
left  artery,  and  the  right  nostril  by  the  right  artery.  Now 
suppose  your  nose  bleeds  from  the  right  nostril ;  with  the 
end  of  the  right  fore-finger  feel  along  the  outer  edge  of  the 
right  jaw  until  you  feel  the  beating  of  the  artery  directly 
under  your  finger,  the  same  as  the  pulse  in  your  wrist, 
then  press  the  finger  hard  upon  it,  thus  getting  the  little 
fellow  in  a  tight  place  between  your  finger  and  the  jaw 
bone  ;  the  result  will  be  that  not  a  drop  of  blood  goes  into 
that  side  of  your  face  while  the  pressure  continues  ;  hence 
the  nose  instantly  stops  bleeding  for  want  of  blood  to  flow  ; 
continue  the  pressure  for  five  or  ten  minutes,  and  the  rup 
tured  vessel  in  the  nose  will  by  that  time  probably  contract 
so  that  when  you  let  the  blood  into  them  they  will  not  leak. 
Bleeding  from  a  cut  or  wound  anywhere  about  the  face 
may  be  stopped  in  the  same  way.  The  Creator  probably 
placed  these  arteries  as  they  are  that  they  might  be 
controlled.  Those  to  the  back  of  the  head,  arms  and  legs, 
are  all  arranged  very  conveniently  for  being  controlled  in 
like  manner. 


558  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


OT  only  the  renowned  mountains  of  the  far  West, 
but  also  the  peculiar  people  who  inhabit  them, 
present  endless  novelties  to  the  tourist.  Of  the 
bewildering  beauty  of  these  ranges — whose  cliffs, 
and  canons,  and  plains  have  been  ever  present 
through  a  journey  of  over  one  thousand  miles, 
and  still  seem  to  be  endless — I  have  written  before,  but  of 
the  people  with  whom  I  have  mingled  so  pleasantly,  I  have 
not  had  time  to  speak  until  now.  The  whole  civilized 
world  does  not  furnish  a  more  cordial,  frank  and  hospitable 
class  of  citizens.  Mutually  dependent  upon  each  other, 
they  cultivate  the  highest  measure  of  true  neighborly  kind 
ness  ;  their  humble  homes  and  frugal  boards  offer  shelter 
and  bread  to  the  stranger,  and  the  children  of  want  are  not 
turned  away  in  sorrow  from  their  doors.  With  them  comes 
crime  armed  with  power  and  wealth,  and  defiant  of  order 
and  authority,  but  there  are  many  nameless  graves  to  attest 
the  stern  retribution  of  the  honest  settler,  as  he  cleared  the 
path  of  the  bullet  and  dagger,  and  made  his  treasure  safe 
from  the  incursions  of  the  robber.  They  are  eminently 
social,  and  their  peculiar  terms  have  a  significance  with 
which  the  more  cultivated  East  has  no  knowledge.  In  all 
classes,  from  the  most  learned  to  the  least  favored  in  letters, 
the  same  expressive  Westernisms  are  in  common  use.  If  a 
man  is  embarrassed  in  any  way,  he  is  "  corraled."  The 
Indians  "  corral"  men  on  the  plains  ;  the  storms  "  corral" 
tourists  in  the  mountains  ;  the  prisoner  is  "corraled"  in 
prison;  the  tender  swain  is  "corraled"  by  crinoline ;  the 
business  man  is  "corraled"  by  debt  or  more  successful 
competitors  in  business ;  the  unfortunate  politician  is  "cor 
raled"  by  the  mountaineers,  the  gulchmen  or  the  settlers  ; 
the  minister  is  "corraled  "  when  he  is  called  to  become  the 
pastor  of  a  congregation  ;  and  the  gambler  "corrals"  the 
dust  of  the  miner.  Indeed,  the  application  of  the  term  is 
almost  as  indefinite  as  it  is  universal.  "Git"  is  another  of 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  559 

the  favorite  and  most  expressive  of  Western  terms.  It  is  the 
invariable  word  by  which  the  hero  of  the  whip  and  lines 
starts  his  teams,  and  they  understand  it  well.  "You  git," 
is  the  most  emphatic  notice  that  can  be  given  to  any  luckless 
chap  to  leave  the  room,  ranch,  or  escape  a  revolver,  arid 
"you  bet,"  is  the  most  positive  manner  of  affirming  what 
you  say.  Every  thing  is  an  "out-lit,"  from  a  train  on  the 
plains  to  a  pocket-knife.  It  is  applied  almost  indiscrimin 
ately — to  a  wife,  a  horse,  a  dog,  a  cat,  or  a  row  of  pins.  A 
"lay-out,"  is  any  proposed  enterprise,  from  organizing  a 
State  to  digging  out  a  prairie-dog.  Any  thing  that  has  been 
tried,  from  running  for  Congress  to  bumming  a  drink,  has 
been  "prospected"  or  "panned  out,"  and  he  "didn't  get 
a  color,"  explains  the  saddest  of  failures.  When  a  Western 
man  declines  any  proposition,  he  "ain't  on  it,"  he  "don't 
go  a  cent  on  that,"  or  "none  of  that  in  mine,"  is  the  answer. 
When  he  wants  to  deal  or  fight  with  a  man,  he  proceeds  to 
"go  for  him,"  and  "I'll  bet  my  bottom  dollar"  is  the  strong 
est  backing  to  his  expressed  opinion.  "The  man  in  the 
wagon,"  is  the  author  of  all  sayings  and  doings  which  can  find 
no  visible  or  responsible  source.  When  the  miner  goes  for 
the  savages,  he  "cleans  'em  out  to  the  bed-rock,"  and  when 
the  braggart  is  to  be  silenced  he  is  informed  that  "nobody's 
holding  you,"  or  "there's  no  weights  on  your  coat  tails." 
When  one  gets  the  decided  advantage  of  another,  whether 
in  deadly  conflict  or  in  business,  he  "has  the  drop  on  him." 
The  universal  term  for  eatables  is  "grub,"  and  the  most 
degrading  epithet  that  one  can  apply  to  another  is  to  pro 
nounce  him  "  a  bilk."  No  Western  man  of  pluck  will  fail 
to  resent  such  concentrated  vituperation.  The  term  was 
entirely  novel  to  me,  and  I  first  asked  its  meaning  of  a 
landlord,  who  explained  by  saying  that  "a  'bilk'  is  a  man 
who  never  misses  a  meal  and  never  pays  a  cent."  There 
are  many  others  equally  original  and  expressive  which  I 
have  heard  often,  but  I  can  not  now  recall.  Used  as  they 
are  by  all  classes,  in  business  and  social  circles,  and  by 
both  sexes,  they  have  become  part  of  the  language  of  the 
country,  and  a  stranger's  fitness  for  Western  life  is  judged 
by  his  readiness  in  acquiring  the  use  of  them. 


560  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


KATIE    LEE    AND    WILLIE    GRAY. 

Two  brown  heads  with  tossing  curls ; 
Red  lips  shutting  over  pearls ; 
Bare  feet  white  and  wet  with  dew, 
Two  eyes  black  and  two  eyes  blue ; 
Little  boy  and  girl  were  they, 
Katie  Lee,  and  Willie  Gray. 

They  were  standing  where  the  brook, 
Bending  like  a  shepherd's  crook, 
Flashed  its  silver ;  and  thick  ranks 
Of  green  willow  fringed  the  banks  ; 
Half  in  thought,  and  half  in  play  ; 
Katie  Lee,  and  Willie  Gray. 

They  had  cheeks  like  cherries  red ; 
He  was  taller — 'most  a  head ; 
She  with  arms  like  wreaths  of  snow, 
Swung  a  basket  to  and  fro, 
As  she  loitered,  half  in  play, 
Chattering  to  Willie  Gray. 

"Pretty  Katie,"  Willie  said, 
And  there  came  a  dash  of  red 
Through  the  brownness  of  his  cheek 
"  Boys  are  strong,  and  girls  are  weak, 
And  I'll  carry,  so  I  will, 
Katie's  basket  up  the  hill." 

Katie  answered  with  a  laugh, 
"  You  shall  only  carry  half," 
And  then  tossing  back  her  curls, 
"  Boys  are  weak  as  well  as  girls." 
Do  you  think  that  Katie  guessed 
Half  the  wisdom  she  expressed  ? 

Men  are  only  boys  grown  tall, 
Hearts  don't  change  much  after  all ; 
And  when  long  years  from  that  day, 
Katie  Lee  and  Willie  Gray 
Stand  again  beside  the  brook, 
Bending  like  a  shepherd's  crook, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  561 

Is  it  strange  that  Willie  said — 

While  again  a  dash  of  red 

Crossed  the  brownness  of  his  cheek — 

"  I  am  strong  and  you  are  weak ; 

Life  is  but  a  slippery  steep, 

Hung  with  shadows,  cold  and  deep. 

"  Will  you  trust  me,  Katie  dear  ? 
Walk  beside  me  without  fear ; 
May  I  carry,  if  I  will 
All  your  burdens  up  the  hill  ?" 
And  she  answered  with  a  laugh — 
"  No,  but  you  may  carry  half." 

Close  beside  the  little  brook, 
Bending  like  a  shepherd's  crook, 
Washing  with  its  silver  hands, 
Late  and  early  at  the  sands, 
Is  a  cottage,  where,  to-day, 
Katie  lives  with  Willie  Gray. 


UNDERGROUND    STREAMS. 

THE     GREAT   LAKES    OF   THE     NORTHWEST     SUPPLIED    FROM   INVISIBLE 

SOURCES. 

we  take  down  the  map  of  North.  America,  and 
follow  around  the  borders  of  our  chain  of  great 
lakes,  we  will  find  that  the  tributaries  for  supply 
ing  the  mighty  torrent  of  water  which  pours  in 
immense  volumes  over  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  and 
thence  through  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  sea,  are  few  in  number 
and  insignificant  in  effect.  Lake  Superior,  the  largest  body 
of  fresh  water  in  the  world,  has  an  area  of  32,000  square 
miles,  and  a  mean  depth  of  1, 000  feet.  There  are  a  few  small 
streams,  none  worthy  of  the  name  of  rivers,  which  find  their 
outlet  in  this  lake — the  St.  Louis  and  Ontonagon  are  the 
largest  of  these  ;  but  there  is  probably  not  water  enough  dis 
charged  into  the  lake  to  make  up  for  the  atmospheric  absorp- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

tion  and  evaporation.  The  entire  State  of  Wisconsin,  even 
from  the  very  borders  of  Lake  Superior,  is  drained  by 
rivers,  which  flow  into,  and  are  tributaries  of,  the  Mississippi. 
These  are,  in  chief,  the  Wisconsin  River,  the  Black,  Chip- 
pewa,  Fox,  and  Rock  rivers,  the  waters  of  which  flow  south 
ward  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  whole  State  of  Minnesota, 
with  its  thousands  of  lakes  and  streams,  may  be  called  the 
mother  of  the  Father  of  Waters  ;  for  all  of  her  waters  which 
do  not  gather  into  the  great  Red  River  of  the  North,  are  dis 
charged  into  the  Mississippi,  and  do  not  contribute  to  keep 
up  the  supply  of  Lake  Superior,  and  on  the  northern  shore 
of  the  lake,  in  the  British  possessions,  there  are  no  rivers 
which  flow  in  this  direction.  Here  the  current  is  the  other 
way,  and  the  streams  find  their  way  to  Hudson' s  Bay  and 
other  more  northerly  seas.  The  outlet  of  Lake  Superior  is 
the  River  St.  Mary' s — a  stream  of  considerable  magnitude — 
which  discharges  the  surplus  waters  of  the  lake  in  the 
direction  of  Lake  Huron.  Lake  Superior  is  627  feet  above 
the  sea-level. 

If  we  examine  the  surroundings  of  Lake  Michigan,  we 
shall  find  the  evidences  of  this  theory  still  more  striking. 
This  lake  has  an  area  of  32,400  square  miles,  and  a  mean 
depth  of  900  feet,  It  is  above  the  sea-level  578  feet,  or  49 
feet  below  Lake  Superior.  It  is  also  an  immense  body  of 
water,  whose  sole  apparent  sources  of  supply  are  found  in 
a  few  small  streams  which  flow  into  it  from  the  State  of 
Michigan. 

The  largest  of  these  are  the  Grand  and  Manistee  rivers ; 
from  Wisconsin  there  is  only  one  small  stream,  the  Milwaukee 
River  at  Milwaukee.  From  Illinois  there  is  only  the  Chi 
cago  River,  a  sluggish  stream  without  a  current ;  and,  in 
deed,  there  is,  at  only  ten  miles  distance  from  the  banks  of 
the  lake  south  and  west,  the  water-shed  called  the  Summit, 
which  separates  the  waters  which  flow  into  the  St.  Lawrence 
from  those  which  flow  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  from  the 
southern  slope  of  this  Summit,  flowing  southward  is  the 
Aux  Plaines  River,  a  tributary  of  the  Illinois.  So  that  Lake 
Michigan  gets  no  water  from  Illinois,  but  a  trifle  from  Wis 
consin,  and  very  little  from  Michigan.  And  yet  the  Straits 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  563 

of  Mackinaw  carry  oft'  a  large  quantity  of  water  from  this 
lake,  and  Lake  Michigan  furnishes  its  due  proportion  of 
the  great  current  which  passes  over  the  Falls  of  Niagara. 
Now,  the  question  arises,  whence  comes  this  great  volume 
and  mass  of  running  water. 

Geologists  are  tolerably  familiar  with  the  subject  of  un 
derground  streams  and  water-courses.  They  know  that  the 
crust  of  the  earth  is  full  of  these  streams,  and  although  from 
the  fact  that  they  are  generally  concealed  from  sight,  there 
must  be  considerable  speculation  concerning  them,  yet  there 
are  cases,  such  as  in  the  Mammoth  Cave  in  Kentucky,  the 
Adelberg  Mountains  in  Switzerland,  and  numerous  artesian 
wells  scattered  all  over  the  world,  the  lost  rivers  on  our 
Western  prairies,  &c.,  from  which  a  positive  knowledge  may 
be  derived  concerning  the  nature  and  history  of  these  rock- 
bound  rivers. 

The  artesian  wells  in  London  furnish  now  about  12,000,000 
of  gallons  of  water  daily.  This  is  the  seepage  of  the  valley 
in  which  the  great  city  is  located.  The  water  from  the 
whole  country  surrounding  finds  its  way  along  the  tilts  and 
inclinations  of  the  broken  strata,  below  the  chalk  beds,  in 
among  the  sands  and  gravel,  from  whence  it  is  taken  by 
boring  into  the  ground  to  the  depth  of  about  600  feet. 
It  does  not  appear  probable  that  there  are  any  very  con 
siderable  streams  in  this  vicinity,  for  the  entire  of  the  un 
derlying  gravel  beds  seem,  as  it  were,  perfectly  saturated 
with  water,  which  is  reached  at  any  point  of  perforation. 

These  remarks  apply  to  the  wells  of  Grenelle  and  of 
Passy,  in  the  basin  of  Paris,  with  the  exception  in  the  case 
of  the  latter  that  they  struck  an  amazing  stream  of  water 
1,800  feet  below  the  surface,  which  discharges  nearly 
6,000,000  of  gallons  per  day,  rushing  to  the  surface  with 
great  power  and  velocity.  This  is  strong  evidence,  cer 
tainly,  of  a  great  underground  current  at  that  point.  The 
great  wells  of  Kissingen,  in  Bavaria ;  at  Munden,  in  Han 
over  ;  at  Louisville,  in  Kentucky;  Charleston,  S.  C.,  and 
hundreds  of  others,  many  of  which  are  2,000  feet  deep, 
discharging  great  volumes  of  water — all  tend  to  demon 
strate  the  fact  that  the  crust  of  the  earth  is  penetrated  in  all 


564:  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

directions  and  at  all  depths  with  these  streams  and  water 
courses. 

Adopting  this  as  a  conceded  fact,  let  us  once  more  turn 
to  the  map  of  North  America  and  note  particularly  the 
point  where  the  thirty-second  degree  of  west  longitude 
crosses  the  forty-fourth  parallel  of  north  latitude.  Within 
a  radius  of  500  miles,  of  which  this  is  the  center,  will 
be  found  the  great  water-producing  region  of  the  West. 
In  this  elevated  and  comparatively  uneven  surface  of  the 
country,  nearly  all  of  the  great  rivers  of  the  West  have 
their  sources  and  fountain-heads.  First  the  Missouri,  with 
its  innumerable  tributaries,  among  which  are  the  Yellow 
stone  and  the  North  Fork  of  the  Platte,  the  Arkansas,  the 
Red  River,  the  Rio  Grande,  all  flowing  from  the  eastern 
and  southern  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  finding 
their  way  through  thousands  of  miles  of  country  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.  On  the  western  slope  is  the  Rio  Colorado, 
which  empties  into  the  Gulf  of  California,  and  which  is 
formed  by  the  union  of  Grand  and  Green  rivers,  the 
sources  of  which  are  also  in  the  territory  above-mentioned. 
The  same  statement  is  true  of  the  Columbia  River,  flowing 
through  the  State  of  Oregon  into  the  Pacific,  and  of  the 
other  great  streams  and  rivers  which  flow  northward  and 
westward  into  the  Pacific  and  the  Northern  oceans.  Thus 
the  knowledge  we  already  possess  of  the  surface  streams 
of  this  great  extent  of  territory  all  tend  to  demonstrate  the 
truth  of  the  theory  in  relation  to  the  water- producing  region, 
its  location,  extent,  and  capacity,  and  also  that  on  the  sur 
face  there  is  but  comparatively  a  small  amount  of  this  water 
which  finds  its  way  into  our  great  lakes. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  to  travelers  on  our  Western  plains 
that  large  streams,  often  rivers  in  size,  suddenly  disappear, 
falling  away  into  fissures  and  chasms,  sometimes  reappear 
ing,  but  more  frequently  lost  forever.  Where,  and  in  what 
manner,  does  this  water  find  an  outlet  ?  What  becomes  of 
the  mass  of  water  which  falls  upon  the  earth  and  is  absorb 
ed  by  the  soil  and  the  rocks  below  the  beds  of  rivers  and 
streams?  The  crust  of  the  earth  abounds  in  waters  to  un 
known  depths,  and  from  the  nature  of  the  element,  it  must 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  565 

create  for  itself  ways  and  courses  of  travel,  as  plainly 
beneath  as  upon  the  surface.  And  now,  if  the  great  lakes 
are  not  supplied  by  means  which  are  upon  the  surface  and 
apparent  to  the  eye,  it  follows  as  a  natural  consequence  that 
their  sources  of  supply  must  be  underneath  the  ground. 
The  outlet  of  these  lakes  discharges  an  enormous  quantity 
of  water,  the  visible  inlets  are  mere  trifles  in  comparison — 
and  thus  there  .seems  to  be  no  other  conclusion  on  the  sub 
ject  but  that  the  supply  comes  from  below  the  surface  of 
the  ground.  This  water  probably  finds  inlets  at  different 
points  on  the  bottoms  of  the  lakes,  and  maintains  the  supply 
with  as  much  certainty  and  regularity  as  if  the  streams 
were  running  on  the  surface  of  the  ground.  This  theory  is 
further,  and  I  think  more  particularly  demonstrated,  by 
the  great  mass  and  volume  of  water  which  is  now  being 
discharged  by  the  Chicago  artesian  wells.  These  are  over 
700  feet  deep — nearly  penetrating  the  earth  to  a  line  parallel 
with  the  bottom  of  Lake  Michigan — are  located  in  no 
great  valley  or  depression,  such  as  the  basins  of  Paris  or 
London.  The  water  has  a  head  of  nearly  125  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  lake  ;  is  much  colder  than  the  mean  tem 
perature  of  the  location  of  the  wells,  being  57  degrees 
Fahrenheit ;  these  facts  tending  to  show  that  it  must  come 
from  a  more  elevated  region  of  country,  and  also  from  a 
higher  latitude.  There  are  two  other  facts  corroborative  of 
this  point :  When  the  water  was  first  struck,  the  tempera 
ture  was  59  degrees  Fahrenheit ;  it  has  fallen  now  two  de 
grees,  or  to  57.  Then  the  first  analysis  of  the  water  ex 
hibited  72  grains  to  the  wine  gallon  of  mineral  matter  held 
in  solution  ;  the  second  analysis,  made  only  one  year  after 
ward,  showed  only  56  grains  of  the  same  matter.  These 
facts,  taken  in  connection  with  the  great  head  of  the  water, 
seem  to  establish  conclusively  that  it  comes  from  some 
remote  region  of  the  north  or  northwest. 

It  is  also  probable  that  the  great  underground  stream 
penetrated  by  these  wells  once  discharged  its  waters  into 
the  bottom  of  Lake  Michigan  ;  but  this  outlet  was  closed 
by  the  upheaval  of  the  earth's  crust,  which  is  visible  at  the 
point  of  the  location  of  these  wells,  and  at  the  present  time 


566  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

there  is  no  outlet  except  the  artificial  one  made  by  the  drill. 
This  supposition  is  proved  by  the  head  and  the  great  force 
and  power  of  the  water,  for  if  it  had  a  lower  outlet  any 
thing  like  the  size  of  the  stream,  it  would  not  show  a  head 
much,  if  any,  above  the  surface  of  the  ground  ;  and  it  is 
also  sustained  by  the  facts  above  stated — first,  the  decrease 
of  the  temperature  of  the  water  from  59  degrees  to  57 
degrees,  and  the  diminution  in  the  quantity  of  mineral 
matter  held  in  solution — the  latter  fact  seeming  clearly 
to  prove  that  prior  to  the  time  when  the  drills  penetrated 
the  stream,  the  water  had  dissolved  and  absorbed  a  large 
quantity  of  the  soluble  matter  of  the  rocks  with  which  it 
came  in  contact  in  its  state  of  rest.  As  soon  as  an  opening 
or  outlet  was  made,  and  a  quantity  of  water  was  discharged, 
this  mineral  matter  decreased  in  proportion,  and  the  proba 
bility  now  is  that  the  water  will  become  softer  and  purer  as 
the  amount  discharged  becomes  greater,  and  that  eventually, 
and  probably  at  no  distant  day,  the  water  will  come  from 
its  fountain-head  simply  filtered  and  purified  by  its  passage 
through  the  sandstone  and  gravel  beds. 

That  the  outlet  of  the  stream  into  Lake  Michigan  was 
closed  by  the  volcanic  upheaval  of  the  earth  and  rocks,  is 
a  probable  conclusion,  which  can  be  verified  by  an  inspec 
tion  of  the  grounds  on  which  these  wells  are  located.  The 
surface  is  only  some  seven  or  eight  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  surrounding  prairie  ;  but  geologically  or  strata-graphi- 
cally,  it  is  nearly  150  feet  above  the  common  level  of  Chi 
cago — that  is,  at  about  one  mile  distant  eastward  and  into 
the  city.  We  bore  into  the  soil  nearly  150  feet  before  reach 
ing  the  same  rock  which  is  here  exposed  upon  the  surface, 
and  at  the  well  bored  at  the  Chicago  Distillery  Company1  s 
premises  on  the  North  Branch,  they  penetrated  the  Joliet 
marble  at  a  depth,  I  believe,  of  186  feet,  which,  at  the  other 
point,  is  only  29  feet  from  the  surface.  This  and  various 
other  facts  show  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  convulsion  ; 
and  that  it  was  no  difficult  feat  of  nature  to  dam  up  this 
comparatively  trifiing  underground  stream  and  leave  its 
waters  pent  up  in  the  rocks  and  caverns  for  the  future  use 
and  benefit  of  man. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  567 

I  don't  know  that  these  speculations  will  bo  of  sufficient 
interest  to  make  them  public,  but  they  may  have  the  effect 
of  directing  some  abler  pen  to  the  solution  of  the  problem 
as  to  the  sources  from  whence  the  great  lakes  derive  their 
supply  of  water. 

GEO.  A.  SHUFELDT, 
in  the  Chicago  Tribune,  November,  1866. 


THE    WANDEKING    JEA\r. 

jHE  legend  of  the  Jew,  ever  wandering  and 
never  dying,  even  from  the  crucifixion  of 
Jesus  to  this  day,  spread  over  many  European 
countries.  The  accounts,  however,  as  in  all 
fables,  do  not  agree.  One  version  is  this : 
When  Jesus  was  led  to  death,  oppressed  by 
the  weight  of  the  cross,  he  wished  to  rest  himself  near 
the  gate  at  the  house  of  Ahasuerus.  This  man,  however, 
sprang  forth  and  thrust  him  away.'  Jesus  turned  toward 
him,  saying,  "I  shall  rest,  but  thou  shalt  move  on  till  I 
return."  And  from  that  time  he  has  had  no  rest,  and  13 
obliged  incessantly  to  wander  about.  Another  version  is 
that  given  by  Mathias  Parisiensis,  a  monk  of  the  thirteenth 
century  : — When  Jesus  was  led  from  the  tribunal  of  Pila- 
tius  to  death,  the  door-keeper,  named  Cartafflious,  pushed 
him  from  behind  with  his  foot,  saying,  "  Walk  on,  Jesus, 
quickly;  why  dost  thou  tarry?"  Jesus  looked  at  him 
gravely,  and  said,  "I  walk  on,  but  thou  shalt  tarry  till  I 
come."  And  this  man,  still  alive,  wanders  from  place  to 
place,  in  constant  dread  of  the  wrath  to  come.  A  third 
legend  adds  that  this  wandering  Jew  falls  sick  every  hun 
dred  years,  but  recovers,  and  renews  his  strength  ;  hence  it 
is  that,  even  after  so  many  centuries,  he  does  not  look 
much  older  than  a  septuagenarian.  Thus  much  for  the 
legends.  Not  one  of  the  ancient  authors  makes  even  men 
tion  of  such  an  account.  The  first  who  reports  some  such 


568  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

thing  is  a  monk  of  the  thirteenth  century,  when,  as  is 
known,  the  world  was  filled  with  pious  fiction,  even  to 
disgust.  However,  the  story  has  spread  far,  so  that  it  has 
"become  a  proverb,  "  He  runs  about  like  a  wandering  Jew." 
There  are  not  persons  wanting  who  assert  that  they  have 
seen  the  Wandering  Jew ;  but  when  their  evidence  is 
examined  by  the  test  of  historical  credibility,  it  is  found 
that  some  impostor  had  made  use  of  this  fable  to  impose 
upon  simple-minded  people  for  some  purpose  of  his  own. — 
&  F.  Mirror,  August  24,  1860. 


DEPTHS  OF  MIXES  IN  EXGLAXD. 

English  journal,  after  valuing  the  total 
product  of  the  mines  of  England  at  £41,431,102 
per  annum,  and  computing  that  England's 
supply  of  coal  will  last  at  least  seven  hundred 
years  longer  at  the  present  rates  of  consump 
tion,  gives  the  following  account  of  the  depth  to  which  the 
bowels  of  the  earth  have  been  pierced  in  England  : — 

The  depth  to  which  we  mine  for  coal  is  already  great. 
The  pit  at  Duckenfield,  in  Cheshire,  is  2,004  feet  below 
the  surface  of  the  point  where  it  intersects  the  "  Black  Mine 
Coal,"  a  seam  which  is  four  feet  six  inches  thick,  and  of 
the  best  quality  for  domestic  and  mining  purposes.  From 
this  point  a  farther  depth  of  live  hundred  feet  has  been 
attained  by  means  of  an  engine  plane  to  the  bed  of  coal,  so 
that  a  great  portion  of  the  coal  is  now  raised  from  the 
enormous  depth  of  2,504  feet.  At  Pendleton,  near  Man 
chester,  coal  is  daily  worked  from  the  depth  of  2,125  feet ; 
and  the  cannel  coal  of  Wigan  is  brought  from  1,773  feet 
below  the  surface.  Many  of  the  Durham  collieries  are 
equally  deep,  and  far  more  extended  in  their  subterranean 
labyrinths.  Some  of  those,  and  others  in  Cumberland,  are 
worked  out  far  under  the  bed  of  the  sea  ;  and  on  both  sides 
of  the  island  we  are  rapidly  extending  our  subterranean 
burrowing. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  509 

Dolcoath  tin  mine,  in  Cornwall,  is  now  working  at  1,800 
feet  from  the  surface,  and  is  rapidly  sinking  deeper.  The 
depth  of  Tresavean,  a  copper  mine,  is  2, 180  feet.  Many  other 
tin  and  copper  mines  are  approaching  these  depths  ;  and 
under  the  Atlantic  waves,  in  Bottallack,  Levant,  and  other 
mines,  man  is  pursuing  his  labors  daily  at  half  a  mile  from 
the  shore.  To  aid  the  miner  in  these  severe  tasks,  gigantic 
steam  engines,  with  cylinders  one  hundred  inches  in  diam 
eter,  are  employed  in  pumping  water  from  these  vast  depths. 
Winding  engines,  which  are  masterpieces  of  mechanical 
skill,  are  ever  at  work  raising  the  minerals  from  each  dark 
abyss,  and  also  "man  engines,"  of  considerable  ingenuity 
—so-called,  because  they  bring  the  wearied  miners  to  the 
light  of  day,  thus  saving  him  from  the  toil  of  climbing  up 
perpendicular  ladders — are  introduced  in  many  of  our 
more  perfectly  conducted  mines.  Our  coal  costs  annually 
one  thousand  lives,  and  more  than  double  that  number  of 
metalliferous  miners  perish  from  accidents  in  the  mines,  or  at 
an  unusually  early  age — thirty-two — from  disease  contracted 
by  the  conditions  of  their  toils.  By  the  industry  of  our  min 
ing  population  there  is  annually  added  to  our  national 
wealth  considerably  more  than  £30,000,000.  This,  when 
elaborated  by  the  process  of  manufacture,  is  increased 
in  value  tenfold.  While  we  are  thus  drawing  upon  that 
"hoarded  treasure,  guarded  by  dragons  white  and  red," 
which  the  enchanter  Merlin  is  fabled  to  have  concealed  in 
the  caves  of  the  earth,  we  should  not  cease  to  remember  how 
much  of  mental  labor  and  muscular  power  is  expended, 
and  how  large  a  percentage  of  human  life  is  annually  sacri 
ficed  in  the  contest  with  those  hydra-headed  evils  which  are 
truly  personified  by  the  dragons  of  the  legend. 


570  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


THE  CHASMS  OF  THE  COLORADO. 


BY    A.    HYATT. 


Niagara  we  readily  realize  the  power  of  demo 
lition  attributed  to  its  waters.  The  Fall  is  still 
receding,  the  ground  is  shaken  under  us  by  its 
blows,  the  chasm  it  has  cut  yawns  before  our 
eyes.  But  it  is  another  and  far  different  matter 
to  recognize  the  same  force  in  other  localities,  where,  per 
haps,  a  puny  stream,  depleted  by  the  summer  heats,  trails 
along  the  center  of  some  deep  gorge. 

Here  the  observer  must  remember  that  time  has  no  boun 
daries  in  geology  ;  that  existing  causes,  provided  they  are 
capable  of  carrying  away  ever  so  small  a  portion  of  solid 
earth  and  rock  now,  would,  in  ages  past,  have  had  oppor 
tunity  enough  to  have  destroyed  the  whole  of  the  rocky 
core  which  once  filled  the  ravine. 

Let  him  descend  and  look  at  the  tottering  pinnacles 
threatening  him  from  above,  and  then  examine  those  that 
have  already  fallen.  The  layers  of  the  shattered  masses  are 
open  to  the  ice-wedges  in  winter,  the  grinding  and  transport 
ing  power  of  the  spring  freshets,  the  alternate  heat  of  noon 
and  cold  of  night.  Acted  upon  also  by  the  oxygen  of  the 
air,  the  acids  in  the  water  now  dry,  now  wet,  is  it  a  wonder 
that  they  are  covered  by  a  coat  softer  than  the  interior  of 
the  rock,  which  is  readily  ground  off  or  dissolved  by  the 
stream  ?  The  rusty  coating  of  iron  arises  from  the  same 
causes,  and  yields  in  the  same  way  when  exposed  to  similar 
influences,  until  the  hard  metal  has  entirely  disappeared. 

The  lofty  ledges  themselves  are  constantly  crumbling, 
the  finer  dust  swept  away  by  the  winds,  and  the  heavier 
pieces  plunging  to  the  bottom.  Every  rain  carries  away, 
in  solution,  the  dust,  which  the  winds  have  spared,  and  a 
portion  of  the  softened  outer-coatings  of  the  stones. 

Watch  the  bottom  of  any  fast-running  rivulet,  you  will 
see  a  moving  cloud  of  the  finest  particles,  and  under  them 
larger  pieces  rolling  confusedly  onward.  The  larger  pieces 
are  slowly  but  surely  wearing  themselves  away,  and  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  571 

moving  cloud  is  the  result  of  this  grinding.  Thus  it  is  that 
nearly  all  the  stones  found  in  brooks  are  pebbles.  When 
first  broken  away  from  the  parent  rock  they  must  have  had 
sharp  edges  like  any  other  fragment.  Have  you  never 
found  a  piece  of  a  bottle  in  the  bed  of  a  stream,  with  the 
edges  nicely  smoothed,  and  the  sides  scratched  and  scored 
like  ground  glass  ?  They  are  quite  common,  and  show  how 
pebbles  are  made  with  perfect  accuracy. 

Quietly  and  almost  imperceptibly  the  tireless  waters 
work,  except  when  heavy  rains  or  spring  freshets,  muddy 
and  discolored  with  their  burden  of  dust  and  dissolved 
rock,  move  even  large  bowlders  and  destroy  well-known 
landmarks.  The  ability  of  water  to  handle  rocks  of  any 
size,  provided  it  is  deep  enough  and  swift  enough,  is  un 
questioned.  In  the  Au  Sable  River,  where  the  inclination 
of  the  shelving  rock  which  formed  the  bed  was  not  over 
two  or  three  degrees,  or  the  depth  more  than  eighteen  inches, 
I  have  myself,  by  the  aid  of  a  lever,  rolled  into  the  current 
great  pieces  of  sandstone,  three  or  four  feet  long  and  a  foot 
thick,  and  heard  their  heavy  rumbling  over  the  ledge  as 
they  were  carried  away.  Among  the  shales,  limestones, 
and  sandstones,  ravines  of  this  description  are  common  ; 
and  in  these  sedimentary  rocks  where  layer  answers  to  layer 
on  either  side  of  the  gorge,  there  can  be  but  little  doubt 
that  water  has  carved  them  out.  In  the  more  disturbed 
localities,  however,  where  the  stratification  is  obscured,  it 
becomes  difficult  to  determine  whether  the  chasms  were  not 
originally  great  cracks  in  the  earth,  subsequently  enlarged 
by  the  grinding  and  transporting  power  of  the  stream.  The 
Colorado  of  the  West  affords  the  best  illustrations  of  these 
two  kinds  which  have  yet  been  seen  by  man.  In  its  lower 
part  the  rocky  sides  of  the  canons  are  cut  out  of  strata 
highly  inclined  and  disturbed,  where  they  have  been  bent 
upward  to  form  the  mountains,  while  in  its  upper  portion 
they  are  perfectly  horizontal. 

Two  rivers,  the  Green  and  the  Grand,  rise  at  the  western 
bases  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  ten  or  twelve  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea,  one  in  southwestern  Nebraska,  the  other  in 
southeastern  Oregon,  and  are  said  to  unite  their  streams 


OF 


[UIITIESITSr 


572  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

near  the  southern  boundary  of  Utah,  to  form  the  Colorado 
of  the  West.  This  then  flows  southwesterly,  and  empties 
into  the  Gulf  of  California.  The  descent  is  accomplished  at 
first  by  a  grand  canon  cut  through  a  succession  of  elevated 
plateaux,  called  Mesas,  which  spread  out  westward  from 
the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  like  a  gigantic  stairway, 
each  step  a  thousand  feet  or  so  in  height  and  many  miles  in 
breadth,  and  in  its  lower  part  by  a  series  of  canons  through 
ranges  of  mountains.* 

The  engraving  accompanying  this  article  shows  the  north 
western  prolongation  of  the  Purple  Hills,  which  form  the 
first  three  canons  in  the  river.  The  two  pinnacles  of 
i 'Chimney  Peak,"  looming  up  in  the  background,  are 
composed  of  trap.  This,  being  much  harder  than  the  mate 
rial  of  the  neighboring  rocks,  has  yielded  less  to  the  action 
of  the  elements,  and  shows  how  vast  has  been  the  denuda 
tion  which  has  destroyed  them.  Professor  Newberry  esti 
mates  that  in  some  cases  the  wearing  away  of  the  moun 
tain  masses  has  been  upon  such  a  grand  scale,  that  now 
they  are  only  half  their  original  size. 

The  Mojave  Canon,  the  fourth  or  fifth  through  which  one 
passes  in  ascending  the  river,  is  described  by  Lieutenant 
Ives  as  follows  :  "A  low,  purple  gateway,  and  a  splendid 
corridor  with  massive  red  walls,  formed  the  entrance  to  the 
canon.  At  the  head  of  this  avenue,  frowning  mountains, 
piled  one  above  the  other,  seemed  to  block  the  way.  A 
sharp  turn  at  the  base  of  the  apparent  barrier  revealed  a 
cavern-like  approach  to  the  profound  chasm  beyond.  A 
scene  of  such  imposing  grandeur,  as  that  which  now  pre 
sented  itself,  I  have  never  before  witnessed.  On  either  side 
majestic  cliffs,  hundreds  of  feet  in  height,  rise  perpendicu 
larly  from  the  water.  As  the  river  wound  through  the  nar 
row  inclosure,  every  turn  developed  some  sublime  effect  or 
startling  novelty  in  the  view.  Brilliant  tints  of  purple, 
green,  brown,  red,  and  white,  illuminated  the  stupendous 

*  From  the  Editors  of  the  American  Journal  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  who  received 
both  this  and  the  "  Chasm  "  through  the  kindness  of  Prof.  Newberry.  The  results 
of  the  last  exploration  of  the  Colorado  of  the  West  by  Prof.  Newberry,  on.  the  Sau 
Juan  Expedition,  are  still  unpublished. 


I! 


m 


i  ^ 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP  BOOK.  573 

surfaces  and  relieved  their  somber  monotony.  Far  above, 
clear  and  distinct  upon  the  narrow  strip  of  sky,  turrets, 
spires,  jagged,  statue-like  peaks  and  grotesque  pinnacles 
overlooked  the  deep  abyss." 

To  this  succeeds  the  Painted  Canon,  whose  exquisitely 
tinted  walls,  though  less  grand,  seem  to  have  excited  the 
artistic  taste  of  the  explorers  not  less  than  the  Mojave  Ca 
non.  Then  occurs  the  Black  Canon,  where,  for  twenty-five 
miles,  the  narrow  river  plunges  througli  the  sunless  depths 
of  the  Black  Mountains,  the  precipices  on  either  side  rising 
perpendicularly  a  thousand  feet  or  more  from  the  water. 
The  little  band,  in  their  frail  boat,  were  buried  in  this  fear 
ful  gorge  for  tAvo  days,  and  one  follows  them  through  the 
difficulties  arid  dangers  of  the  pass  with  breathless  interest. 

The  walls  of  these  canons,  according  to  Dr.  Newberry, 
the  geologist  of  the  expedition,  are  formed  of  great  masses 
of  granite,  porphyry,  trap,  and  other  volcanic  rocks,  with 
layers  of  highly  crystalline  limestone  and  conglomerates, 
which  are  of  equal  heights,  and  correspond  exactly  on 
either  side  of  the  river.  The  unavoidable  inference  from 
these  facts  is,  that  the  mountain  ranges,  of  which  there 
are  several  besides  those  I  have  mentioned,  once  crossed  the 
bed  of  the  river  and  dammed  back  its  flow,  filling  the  valleys 
between  with  extensive  lakes.  These  were  probably  con 
nected  by  a  series  of  cascades  and  rapids,  which  must  have 
been  of  unparalleled  beauty  and  grandeur  ;  but  as  Niagara 
is  destroying  itself,  so  have  they  destroyed  themselves.  The 
stupendous  precipices,  so  graphically  described  by  Lieuten 
ant  Ives,  are  the  trophies  of  their  unconquerable  power, 
the  remnants  of  those  mountain,  barriers  through  which 
the  cataracts  ate  their  way  and  drained  the  great  lakes  of 
the  interior. 

These  chasms,  however,  with  their  thousand  feet  or  so  of 
granite  and  solid  porphyries,  are  but  the  outer  gates  pre 
paring  the  mind  for  the  awful  sublimity  of  the  Great  Canon. 
The  local  disturbances  or  oscillations  which  gave  rise  to  the 
wild  scenery  of  the  lowlands,  tossing  their  originally  hori 
zontal  layers  into  lofty  mountainous  waves,  have  made  no 
impression  upon  its  walls.  The  level  courses  of  sandstone, 


574  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

limestone,  and  shale,  lie  upon  a  bed  of  granite,  of  itself  a 
thousand  feet  thick,  without  a  bend  or  fault  to  mar  their 
perfect  parallelism.  The  entire  thickness  of  the  first  great 
mesa  or  plateau,  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  is  exposed 
in  the  cliffs,  and  the  edges  of  the  severed  plain  hang  in  the 
air  over  a  mile  above  the  river. 

"  This  scenery,"  says  Lieutenant  Ives,  speaking  of  a  side 
canon  down  which  they  passed  some  seventeen  miles  to  the 
river,  "much  resembled  that  of  the  Black  Canon,  excepting 
that  the  rapid  descent,  the  increasing  magnitude  of  the 
colossal  piles  that  blocked  the  end  of  the  vista,  and  the  cor 
responding  depth  and  gloom  of  the  gaping  chasms  into  which 
we  were  plunging,  imparted  an  unearthly  character  to  a  way 
which  might  have  resembled  the  portals  of  the  infernal  re 
gions."  No  attempt  is  made  to  describe  the  Great  Canon 
itself.  The  explorers  seem  to  have  succumbed  to  the  awe 
created  in  their  own  minds,  and  yielded  the  greatest  homage 
they  could  have  paid  to  the  unearthly  nature  of  the  scene- 
silence.  -  For  three  hundred  miles  the  precipitous  walls  vary 
from  three  thousand  to  six  thousand  feet  in  height,  and  on 
every  side  the  plain  is  furrowed  by  the  tributaries,  so  that 
' '  fissures,  so  profound  the  eye  can  not  penetrate  their  gloomy 
depths,  are  separated  by  walls  whose  thickness  one  can 
almost  span,  and  slender  spires  that  seem  tottering  upon 
their  bases,  shoot  up  thousands  of  feet  from  the  vaults 
below." 

The  country  is  impassable  to  man  and  beast,  and  none 
but  birds  can  explore  the  cavernous  abysses.  The  solitude 
is  unbroken,  and  the  inhospitable  rocks  deserted,  save  by 
a  few  Indians  who  drag  out  a  wretched  and  monotonous 
existence  among  the  subterranean  passages.  No  vegetation 
clings  to  the  sides  of  the  canon  or  covers  the  broken  surface 
of  the  mesa  ;  all  is  alike  naked  and  savage.  The  second 
illustration  gives  a  view  of  the  general  aspect  of  the  surface, 
with  other  mesas  rising  in  the  distance. 

The  chasm  at  Niagara  excites  much  wonder,  but  what 
shall  be  said  of  this?  The  horizontal  strata,  answering 
layer  to  layer  upon  either  side,  are  witnesses  that  can  not 
lie.  If  this  three  hundred  miles  of  solid  earth  had  been 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  575 

torn  apart  by  volcanic  forces,  the  strata  would  not  now  be 
horizontal,  and  continuous  from  side  to  side  in  the  bed  of 
the  chasm,  but  contorted  or  bent  upward.  Had  one  part 
settled  away  from  the  other,  leaving  a  gap  between,  the 
strata  would  not  be  at  equal  heights.  The  river  is  the  only 
agent  that  could  have  done  the  mighty  work.  At  some 
period  of  past  time  incalculably  distant,  the  Colorado  and 
its  tributaries  flowed  over  a  mile  above  on  the  mesa,  and. 
descended  by  a  cascade  into  a  great  lake  which  filled  the 
valley  between  the  Great  and  Black  canons.  A  succession 
of  such  lakes,  connected  by  cataracts  or  rapids  as  before 
described,  led  over  the  mountain  chains,  until  step  by  step 
it  reached  the  valley  through  which  it  now  flows  to  the 
Gulf  of  California. 

Newberry  found,  in  the  deposits  of  the  lower  part  of  the 
river,  the  tooth  of  a  mastodon  and  the  silicified  remains  of 
fossil  drift-wood  buried  in  the  ancient  banks  now  some  two 
hundred  feet  above  the  present  level.  These  remains  indi 
cate  a  far  more  abundant  vegetation  than  at  present,  and 
that  when  the  lakes  spread  their  broad  sheets  over  the  nov,' 
barren  valleys,  and  the  rivers  were  near  the  surface  of  the 
mesa,  all  the  land  was  covered  by  great  forests  of  pine, 
among  which  huge  elephants  roamed  and  cropped  the  suc 
culent  leaves.  Time  has  sapped  this  green,  luxuriant  youth- 
fulness,  and  in  its  seared  and  wrinkled  old  age,  though 
grander  and  more  majestic,  the  country  is  bald  and  unfruit 
ful. — American  Naturalist. 


THE    PARTING    IIOUK. 


THE  following  exquisite  poem  was  written  by  the  late 
Edward  Pollock,  the  gifted  California  poet,  on  the  6th  of 
January,  1857,  and  has  never  before  been  published.  It 
was  given  by  the  poet  to  a  friend  who  was  about  to  depart 
on  a  steamer  for  Oregon,  Pollock  saying:  "Take  this. 
You  may,  perhaps,  read  and  appreciate  the  sentiment  long 
after  I  have  ceased  to  be  among  the  living'': — 


576  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

There's  something  in  the  "parting  hour" 

Will  chill  the  warmest  heart — 
Yet  kindred,  comrades,  lovers,  friends, 

Are  fated  all  to  part ; 
But  this  I've  seen — and  many  a  pang 

Has  pressed  it  on  my  mind — 
The  one  who  goes  is  happier 

Than  those  he  leaves  behind. 

No  matter  what  the  journey  be, 
Adventurous,  dangerous,  far, 

To  the  wild  deep  or  bleak  frontier, 
To  solitude,  or  war — 

Still  something  cheers  the  heart  that  dares 
In  all  of  human  kind, 

And  they  who  go  are  happier 
\  Than  those  they  leave  behind. 

The  bride  goes  to  the  bridegroom's  home 

With  doublings  and  with  tears, 
But  does  not  Hope  her  rainbow  spread 

Across  her  cloudy  fears  ? 
Alas  !  the  mother  who  remains, 

What  comfort  can  she  find 
But  this — the  gone  is  happier 

Than  one  she  leaves  behind  ? 

Have  you  a  friend — a  comrade  dear  ? 

An  old  and  valued  friend  ? 
Be  sure  your  term  of  sweet  concourse 

At  length  will  have  an  end  ! 
And  when  you  part — as  part  you  will — 

Oh,  take  it  not  unkind 
If  he  who  goes  is  happier 

Than  you  he  leaves  behind ! 

God  wills  it  so — and  so  it  is : 

The  pilgrims  on  their  way, 
Though  worn  and  weak,  more  cheerful  are 

Than  all  the  rest  who  stay. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  577 

And  when,  at  last,  poor  Man  subdued, 
Lies  down  to  death  resigned, 

O  " 

May  he  not  still  be  happier  far 
Than  those  he  leaves  behind  ? 

S.  F.  Californian. 


DIFFERENCE    IN    TIME    BETWEEN    OLD  AND    NEW    STYLES. 


view  of  the  extensive  commercial  relations 
which  will  probably  soon  spring  up  between 
San  Francisco  and  the  Russian  ports  on  the 
Pacific  (where  the  Old  Style  is  used),  it  is 
desirable  that  so  important  a  matter  as  corre 
sponding  dates  should  be  perfectly  understood  by  our 
business  men.  And  since  no  one  else  has  called  attention 
to  it,  I  will  do  so  myself,  and  endeavor  to  fully  explain  it 
by  generally  reviewing  the  subject  of  the  calendar. 

The  exact  period  of  a  year,  or  the  revolution  of  the  earth 
around  the  sun,  is  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days,  five 
hours,  forty-eight  minutes  and  fifty-one  seconds.  The 
ancient  Egyptians  used  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  for 
their  years  and  were  the  nearest  correct ;  the  Romans  (from 
whom  our  calendar  is  derived)  used  thirteen  lunar  months, 
or  three  hundred  and  fifty-five  days.  This  threw  the  seasons 
into  great  confusion,  but  was  rectified  by  Julius  Csesar  in 
the  year  45  B.  c.,  which  he  ordered  to  commence  on  the  1st 
January,  being  the  day  of  the  new  moon  immediately  fol 
lowing  the  winter  solstice  of  the  year  before.  He  also 
enacted  that  the  succeeding  year,  46  B.  c.,  should  consist 
of  four  hundred  and  forty-five  days,  and  thereafter  that 
one  bissextile  or  leap  year,  should  be  inserted  after  every 
three  common  years  by  making  February  to  consist  of 
twenty-nine  instead  of  twenty-eight  days.  This  period, 
however,  was  too  great  by  eleven  minutes  and  nine  seconds 
in  each  year,  amounting  to  more  than  ten  days  in  1582, 
when  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  decreed  that  the  year  should  be 
brought  forward  ten  days  by  reckoning  the  5th  of  October 

37 


578  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  15th,  and  to  insure  accuracy  thereafter,  prescribed  the 
rule  that :  Every  year  whose  number  is  not  divisible  by 
four,  without  a  remainder,  to  consist  of  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five  days  ;  every  year  which  is  so  divisible,  but  is  not 
divisible  by  one  hundred,  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-six  ; 
every  year  divisible  by  one  hundred,  but  not  by  four  hun 
dred,  again,  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  ;  and  every  year 
divisible  by  four  hundred,  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-six. 

This  calendar  was  adopted  immediately  in  all  the  Catho 
lic  States  of  Europe,  but  was  not  introduced  into  England 
until  the  year  1752,  when  by  act  of  Parliament  eleven  days 
were  suppressed  (the  error  having  increased  one  day),  and 
the  3d  of  September  was  called  the  14th.  By  the  same  act, 
the  beginning  of  the  year  was  changed  from  March  25th  to 
January  1st, 

Since  that  period  the  error  has  increased  another  day, 
and  consequently  the  difference  in  dates  between  ourselves 
and  the  Russians  is  now  twelve  days,  and  after  February 
29,  1900,  will  be  thirteen  days.— Tiros.  TE^NESTT,  in  8.  F. 
Bulletin. 


THE    ZODIACAL    LIGHT    AS    SEEN"    IN    CALIFORNIA. 


iHIS  beautiful  and  wonderful  atmospheric  body 
or  phenomenon,  for  its  nature  is  yet  but  little 
understood,  is  exhibited  in  no  country  in  such 
clear  and  perceptible  outlines  as  in  California. 
For  the  last  six  months,  particularly  from  the 
1st  November,  1863,  to  February,  1864,  from 
the  exceeding  clearness  and  tranquillity  of  the  evenings,  it 
shows  itself  before  the  declining  sun,  especially  near  the 
sea-shore,  in  all  its  singular  and  lovely  proportions,  and 
continues  to  be  visible  till  even  midnight,  if  no  clouds  are 
in  the  way.  When  the  sun  is  setting,  it  may  be  seen  in 
soft  light  orange-colored  rays  reaching  many  degrees  up 
ward,  and  many  people  take  it  for  the  rays  of  that  orb 
when  in  its  daily  decline.  After  dark,  it  resolves  its  appear- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  579 

ance  into  a  long  luminous  track  of  an  elongated  triangular 
figure,  reaching  nearly  up  to  the  central  parts  of  the  heavens, 
culminating  not  far  from  the  zenith,  and  appearing  like  the 
subdued  light  of  the  tail  of  a  distant  comet— such  as  the  im 
mense  affair  seen  in  California  three  or  four  years  ago.  In 
the  great  interior  plains  of  the  country,  and  we  suppose 
equally  so  in  Washoe,  Utah,  and  Arizona,  its  appearance, 
from  the  refraction  of  the  rays  of  the  heated  surface,  is 
equaled,  if  not  probably  much  exceeded,,  by  its  show  near 
the  ocean  line.  It  lies  nearly  in  the  sun's  ecliptic,  its  base 
being  on  the  horizon,  and  the  apex  at  all  degrees  of  alti 
tudes.  In  the  evening,  it  may  be  seen  over  the  track  of 
the  setting  sun,  a  little  north  of  west,  and  in  the  morning, 
about  dawn,  a  little  south  of  east.  It  is  supposed  by  some 
to  be  a  cosmical  body  near  to  the  earth's  atmosphere,  of 
most  ethereal  and  attenuated  nature,  similar  to  the  tail  of 
comets,  as  the  stars  appear  through  it,  and  slightly  resem 
ble  the  nebulae  of  the  milky  way.  Its  nature  has  never 
been  examined  in  California,  where,  however,  it  could  be 
done  just  now,  and  till  April,  with  great  facility.— £  F. 
Bulletin,  February,  1864. 


THE   FILIAL   FEELING. 


I  AM  wedded,  Coleridge,  to  the  fortunes  of  my  sister 
and  my  poor  old  father.  Oh,  my  friend,  I  think  some 
times  could  I  recall  the  days  that  were  passed,  which 
among  them  should  I  choose  ?  Not  those  merrier  days,  not 
the  pleasant  days  of  hope,  not  those  wandering  with  a  fair- 
haired  maid,  which  I  have  so  often  and  so  feelingly  regretted 
—but  the  days,  Coleridge,  of  a  mother's  fondness  for  her 
school-boy.  What  would  I  give  to  call  her  back  to  earth  for 
one  day,  that  I  might,  on  my  knees,  ask  her  pardon  for  all 
those  little  asperities  of  temper  which  from  time  to  time  have 
given  her  gentle  pain  !  And  the  day,  my  friend,  I  trust, 
may  come,  when  there  will  be  time  enough  for  kind  offices 


580  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

of  love,  if  Heaven' s  eternal  years  be  ours.  Oh,  my  friend, 
cultivate  the  filial  feeling !  Let  no  man  think  himself  re 
leased  from  the  kind  charities  of  relationship  !  These  are 
the  "best  foundations  of  every  species  of  benevolence. 

CHARLES  LAMB. 


AN    INCIDENT    IN    THE    LIFE    OP    A    MINEK. 

IT  was  a  gloomy  afternoon  in  the  middle  of  the 
rainy  season  so  peculiar  to  the  climate  of  Cali 
fornia,  that  myself  and  two  companions  came 
to  a  halt,  after  a  long  and  fruitless  search  after 
that  precious  metal  which  has  drawn  so  many 
away  from  their  peaceful  homes  to  become  wanderers  in  a 
far-off  country. 

Mine  was  only  one  of  the  numerous  instances  of  hard 
fortune  which  seemed  to  merge  into  a  fatality,  and  to  make 
abortive  every  effort  toward  acquiring  a  fortune,  or  even 
a  competency.  My  companions  were  young  men,  brothers, 
who  had  left  the  States  with  their  heads  filled  witli  golden 
dreams,  and,  after  two  years  of  unparalleled  hardship, 
found  themselves  in  a  frame  of  mind  bordering  upon  des 
peration,  and  utterly  destitute  of  money  and  the  common 
necessaries  of  life 

We  had  entered  a  small  valley  in  the  morning,  formed 
by  the  range  of  hills  near  the  North  Fork  of  the  American 
River.  It  took  us  nearly  the  whole  of  the  forenoon  to 
descend  the  precipitous  sides  of  the  mountain,  and,  ex 
hausted  by  our  exertions,  we  had  thrown  ourselves  under 
the  outspreading  branches  of  a  large  oak,  which  stood  near 
the  center  of  a  small  level  which  formed  the  basin  of  what 
appeared,  at  some  distant  period,  to  have  been  the  reservoir 
of  a  small  lake.  I  had  lighted  my  pipe,  while  my  friends 
were  engaged  in  unpacking  such  scanty  provisions  as  we 
had  remaining.  My  thoughts  had  insensibly  wandered 
away  to  old  associations,  and  I  was  half- wondering  to  my 
self  whether  I  would  ever  "  strike  a  pile" — the  ultimatum 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  581 

which  is  ever  present  to  a  Californian'  s  imagination — when 
I  was  startled  by  a  shout  behind  me.  I  turned  quickly, 
and  found  the  brothers  dancing  and  leaping  about  in  the 
most  extravagant  manner.  I  rushed  up  to  them,  and  there, 
in  glittering  profusion,  lay  the  cause  of  their  sudden  joy  : 
they  had  rolled  a  large  stone  over  to  serve  as  a  seat,  and  in 
doing  so  exposed  to  view  a  "pocket"  filled  with  masses 
and  lumps  of  gold  in  nearly  a  pure  state.  I  congratulated 
them  on  their  discovery,  when  each  claimed  it  as  his  own. 
The  lie  and  the  blow  were  passed  in  quick  succession,  and 
before  I  could  utter  a  word  they  were  in  mortal  combat, 
rolling  over  the  sward  and  shifting  their  positions  with  the 
rapidity  of  lightning.  They  were  mad — the  froth  flew  from 
between  their  closely-shut  teeth,  and  they  gave  utterance 
to  howls  of  rage  that  resembled  more  the  shrieks  of  demons 
than  human  beings.  In  an  instant  one  jumped  up  with  a 
yell  of  victory,  grasping  a  knife  dripping  with  the  blood  of 
his  brother.  He  threw  himself  flat  on  the  ground,  with  his 
face  and  hands  on  the  treasure.  It  was  with  feelings  better 
imagined  than  described  that  I  witnessed  this  terrible  trag 
edy.  Every  thing  had  passed  so  instantaneously  that  I  had 
no  opportunity  for  interference.  As  soon  as  I  could  collect 
my  scattered  senses,  I  proceeded  to  raise  the  injured  one 
up.  He  was  stone  dead  ;  the  knife  must  have  pierced  his 
heart.  I  was  in  the  act  of  laying  him  down  when  a  cry 
reached  me  that  will  haunt  me  to  my  dying  hour.  I  looked 
up,  and— horror  of  horrors ! — saw  the  brother  half  risen 
from  the  earth,  in  the  act  of  casting  from  him  a  huge  rattle 
snake  which  had  coiled  itself  around  his  neck  while  he  had 
been  hugging  to  his  heart  his  ill-gotten  gold.  There  was  a 
dark,  livid  spot  upon  his  cheek,  which  told  the  tale,  while 
stamped  upon  his  features,  ferocity,  rage,  fright,  and  utter 
despair,  struggled  for  the  mastery.  Above  all  could  be 
heard  the  clear,  ringing  rattle  of  the  deadly  reptile,  as,  cast 
from  the  hand  of  its  victim,  it  crawled  its  slow  length  away 
into  the  surrounding  chaparral.  I  entered  that  valley  a 
young  man — I  left  it  prematurely  old.  I  buried  both  broth 
ers  under  the  old  tree  which  had  been  the  only  witness, 
beside  myself,  of  their  early  and  violent  death. 


582  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


THE    SWEET-BEIER. 

MY  heart  grows  tired  as  I  sit  to-day 

In  the  midsummer  air ; 
So  I  close  my  eyes  and  think  of  the  Past — 

Of  a  picture  there. 
I  see  two  children  in  search  of  flowers 

At  the  foot  of  the  hill, 
Where,  nestling  among  the  fresh,  sweet  clover, 

Their  aprons  they  nil 
With  buttercups  yellow  and  primrose  buds 

And  daffodils  gay. 
Then  parting  the  grasses  and  weeds — behold ! 

A  low  bending  spray — 
A  sweet-brier  bush  !  the  stray  little  thing, 

How  could  it  grow  there  ? 
All  cuddled  away  among  the  long  grass 

And  sighing  for  air. 
You  modest,  sweet  darling  !     Come,  make  your  debut ! 

You  were  born  to  be  seen, 
To  exquisitely  bloom,  and  lift  up  your  head 

As  proud  as  a  queen  ! 
You're  no  little  daisy  or  violet  meek 

To  hide  near  the  ground  ; 
But  graceful  to  grow,  and  to  smilingly  twine 

Your  pink  wreaths  round 
Our  window-shade,  and  over  our  door : 

And  soon  we'll  find 
Your  wantoning  sweets  pervade  each  breath 

Of  summer  wind. 
You  ne'er  can  grow  to  glorious  right 

Thus  kept  from  light ; 
But  lifted  to  sunshine  and  freedom  you'll  thrive, 

And  gladden  our  sight ! 

Uprooting  the  bush,  we  carried  it  home, 

And  planted  anew. 
The  south  door  soon  was  rose-en  wreathed. 

When  bathed  in  dew 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  583 

The  humming-birds  came — then  drowsy  bees, 

For  dainty  fare. 
And  coquettes  loved  its  light  pink  blooms 

To  grace  their  hair. 
And  oh,  when  the  rain  came  pattering  down, 

In  freshening  shower, 
Ineffably  sweet  was  the  air  around 

That  matchless  flower ! 
Oh,  waft  here  now,  through  the  visioned  past, 

Thou  rose-scented  wind ! 
Bring  that  sweet-brier's  breath  !     Bring  the  grace  of  that  time 

To  soothe  my  mind 
And  charm  my  soul  from  its  thirsting  pain ! 

Ah  well !  Ah  well ! 
I'll  think  not  of  self— the  Lord  is  good — 

And  who  can  tell 
How  many  hearts  like  that  fair  flower 

Are  smothered  from  light ! 
And  tender  care,  and  kept  below 

Their  proper  right, 
Which,  if  translated  to  kinder  thoughts 

And  sunnier  spot, 
Would  rise  to  noble  heights,  of  which 

They  now  dream  not ; 
And  sweeten  lives  and  gladden  hearts, 

And  lighten  care, 
Till  gathered  with  the  flowers  of  God  they  bloom 

In  pastures  fair ! 

MARY  VIOLA  TINGLEY. 
San  Francisco,  August,  1867. 


584  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 


THE    CHINA    MAIL    BANQUET. 

Remarks  of  MESSRS.  ELDRIDGE,  MCALLISTER,  STANFORD,   STONE,  and  STEBBINS,  at 
the  great  China  Mail  Banquet,  San  Francisco,  Dec.  31,  1866. 

EEMAKKS    OF    CAPTAIN    ELDRIDGE. 


OURTH  regular  toast.— "  The  Pacific  Mail 
Steamship  Company  : — The  Avant  Couriers  of 
Progress,  and  Common  Carriers  of  Civilization 
—we  praise  the  bridge  that  has  carried  iis  safely 
over."  Captain  Oliver  Eldridge,  agent  in  San 
Francisco,  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Com 
pany,  responded  as  follows  :— 

In  reference  to  the  sentiment  just  proposed  and  received 
so  cordially,  I  beg  to  convey  my  thanks  to  his  Excellency, 
the  Governor  of  California,  and  the  distinguished  gentlemen 
present,  for  and  in  behalf  of  Allen  McLane,  Esq.,  who  has 
so  nobly  filled  the  position  as  President  of  the  Company  of 
which  I  am  but  an  humble  representative  on  this  coast.  I 
sincerely  wish  that  not  only  he,  but  the  Vice-President,  Mr. 
Bellows,  and  the  gentlemen  who  compose  the  Board  of 
Directors  were  here  with  you  in  person,  as  I  feel  they  are 
in  spirit  and  feelings. 

His  Excellency  will  appreciate  my  feelings,  when  I  state 
that  there  is  no  duty  which  a  merchant  sailor  performs  so 
reluctantly  as  when  called  upon  to  make  a  speech,  and  I 
am  sure  the  gentlemen  present  will  thank  me  for  not 
occupying  their  time,  particularly  when  I  see  so  many 
around  me  ready  to  overflow  with  eloquence. 

Like  all  intelligent  corporations,  the  P.  M.  S.  S.  Company 
has  provided  for  the  incompetency  of  its  officers  when  away 
from  under  the  wing  of  its  President,  and  when  surrounded 
by  embarrassment  they  immediately  consult  the  advice  of 
a  friend.  I  shall  not  depart  from  that  rule  on  this  occasion, 
but  proceed  to  consult  one  more  familiar  with  public 
speaking  than  myself — Mr.  McAllister. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  585 


REMARKS    OF    HALL    M'ALLISTER,    ESQ. 

Hall  McAllister,  Esq.,  arose  and  said  : — 

I  respond  with  pleasure,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  the  request  of 
my  friend,  Captain  Eldridge.  He  disclaims  any  power  of 
elocution,  but  I  beg  to  inform  him,  in  this  public  presence, 
that  he  is  endowed  with  the  best  and  highest  strain  of  elo 
quence — not  of  the  mere  voice,  but  of  the  heart,  of  the  life, 
of  the  character  and  of  the  conduct. 

"  For  conduct  hath  the  loudest  tongue  ; 
In  the  deed,  the  unequivocal,  authentic  deed, 
We  find  the  best  argument." 

Or,  as  has  been  pithily  said,  "Words  are  Women,  but 
Deeds,  those  be  men. 

Mr.  Chairman :  On  March  3,  1847,  Congress  authorized 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  contract  for  the  transportation 
of  a  monthly  mail  from  Panama  to  Oregon  in  steam 
vessels.  This  led  to  a  mail  contract,  which  finally  became 
the  property  of  Wm.  H.  Aspinwall  and  his  associates. 
These  gentlemen,  headed  by  Mr.  Aspinwall  (who  was  the 
founder  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company),  organized 
that  corporation  on  the  12th  of  April,  1848,  and  built  three 
steamers  well  known  to  our  pioneers,  the  California,  Oregon, 
and  Panama,  vessels  of  about  one  thousand  tons  each. 

The  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  of  those  days  bore 
no  comparison  with  -the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company 
of  the  present  time  ;  then  they  were  "but  in  the  gristle, 
but  now  they  have  hardened  into  the  bone  of  manhood." 

Then  their  capital  was  $500,000,  with  the  liberty,  by  their 
charter,  of  increasing  it  to  $1,000,000  ;  now  it  is  $20,000,000  ; 
then  they  had  three  steamers,  of  one  thousand  tons,  on  the 
Pacific;  now  they  control  the  California  trade  on  both 
oceans — have  some  twenty  steamers,  most  of  them  over 
2,500,  and  some  of  them  5,000  tons  burden.  This  is  a  great 
change,  a  wonderful  growth,  a  magnificent  result. 

This  great  "body  of  performance,"  the  present  efficient 
organization  of  this  company,  the  skillful  administration  of 


586  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

its  affairs  for  years  past ;  its  present  power  and  prestige,  and 
the  initiation  of  the  great  enterprise  which  we  now  celebrate, 
are  largely  due  to  the  executive  ability,  the  sagacious  judg 
ment,  and  the  prescient  forecast  of  its  President,  Allen 
Me  Lane,  of  New  York,  son  of  that  Louis  McLane  who,  as 
Secretary  of  State,  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  as  Minister 
to  England,  as  President  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Rail 
road  Company,  evinced  high  and  various  talents. 

The  son  has  proven  himself  a  worthy  descendant  of  such 
a  father  ;  he  has  not  only  shown  himself  a  chip  of  the  old 
block,  but,  as  Burke  said  of  the  younger  Pitt,  "not  merely 
a  cTiip  of  tlie  old  block,  but  the  old  block  itself" 

In  making  this  great  attempt  at  trans-Pacific  steam  navi 
gation,  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  have  received 
but  inconsiderable  aid  at  the  hands  of  the  Government.  Their 
contract  (authorized  by  the  Act  of  February  17, 1865)  binds 
them,  for  an  annual  subsidy  of  $500,000,  to  a  mail  service  of 
ten  years,  and  monthly  trips  between  San  Francisco  and 
Hong  Kong,  touching  both  on  the  outward  and  inward  pass 
age  at  Honolulu,  Sandwich  Islands,  and  Kanagawa,  Japan  ; 
and  this  in  first-class  American  steamships  of  3,500  tons  bur 
den.  As  has  been  wisely  recommended  by  our  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  this  stoppage  at  the  Sandwich  Islands,  which 
will  occasion  a  delay  of  five  days  on  each  voyage,  or  ten  days 
on  the  round  trip,  should  be  stricken  from  the  contract,  as 
the  main  object  of  the  enterprise  is  not  mere  communication 
with  the  Asiatic  world  (that  we  have  already),  but  direct  and 
speedy  communication — the  most  direct  and  the  most  speedy 
— so  that  there  shall  be  one  continuous  and  undeviating 
line  of  steamship  and  railway  from  Asia  to  Europe  ;  so  that 
this  shall  be  the  great  avenue  of  Eastern  trade ;  so  that 
San  Francisco  and  New  York  shall  stand  as  two  mighty 
portals  on  either  side  of  the  continent  through  which  this 
affluent  traffic  must  pass,  and  at  which  it  must  pay  tribute. 

Despite  the  smallness  of  the  Government  subsidy,  the 
Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company,  true  to  itself  and  to  its 
past  history,  have  initiated  the  undertaking  in  a  spirit  of 
munificence  worthy  of  the  magnitude  of  the  enterprise.  Their 
steamships  for  this  China  line  are  to  be  not  of  3,500  tons,  as 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  587 

called  for  by  the  contract,  "but  of  5,000  tons  burden,  and 
are  to  cost  $1,000,000  each.  Of  these,  the  Great  Republic 
and  the  Celestial  Empire  are  already  launched,  and  four 
others  are  to  be  constructed  of  the  same  size  and  at  the  same 
cost. 

When  we  reflect  that  this  company  propose  to  devote 
$6,000,000  to  the  construction  of  their  China  steamers  ;  when 
we  consider  the  cost  of  auxiliary  vessels,  of  depots  and 
wharves  at  the  Sandwich  Islands,  Japan,  and  China  ;  when 
we  see  them  now  expending  in  wharf  and  warehouse  im 
provements  in  this  city  some  $500,000,  we  may  form  some 
just  idea  of  the  liberal  and  noble  manner  in  which  this  great 
steamship  company  (the  greatest  in  the  world)  propose  to 
undertake  this  vast  enterprise.  I  say  undertake,  but  I 
mean  undertake  and  carry  through,  for  their  immense  capital, 
their  past  energy  and  success,  the  high  ability  of  their 
directors,  the  well  tried  capacity  of  their  agents,  their  noble 
corps  of  captains  and  officers,  and  the  general  efficiency  of 
their  system  of  business,  guarantee,  that  if  any  association 
or  any  company,  of  oar  day,  can  and  will  successfully 
execute  this  novel  and  notable  achievement,  that  company 
is  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company. 

For  centuries,  the  commerce  of  the  East  has  been  the 
object  of  European  cupidity,  and  to  monopolize  it,  mercan 
tile  ingenuity,  crafty  diplomacy,  and  military  power,  have 
been  vigorously,  unscrupulously  and  continuously,  employ 
ed.  Its  splendors  have  been  the  theme  of  adventurous 
spirits  throughout  the  world,  and  have  carried  the  inspira 
tion  of  poetry  into  the  ordinary  routine  of  colonial  life. 

The  commercial  connection  between  Europe  and  the  East, 
founded  in  force  and  fraud,  has  been  preserved  by  artificial 
means.  It  requires  but  a  glance  at  the  map  to  prove  that 
the  west  coast  of  the  United  States  presents  to  the  Orient  a 
front  similar  to  that  presented  by  the  east  coast  of  the  United 
States  to  Europe  ;  and,  if  the  plain  suggestions  of  nature 
were  followed,  commercial  relations  between  China  and  the 
Pacific  States  would  be  as  extensive  and  various  as  those 
between  the  Atlantic  States  and  Great  Britain. 

The  proposed  diversion  of  trade,  if  successful,  must  place 


588  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  United  States  "  in  the  track  of  nations,"  and  will  give  to 
California  the  commercial  prominence  to  which,  "by  her 
geographical  position,  she  is  justly  entitled.  San  Francisco 
may  not,  indeed,  become,  as  one  writer  has  said,  "  the  center 
of  the  world's  exchanges,"  but  she  will  assuredly  reach  the 
dignity  of  one  of  the  financial  centers  of  the  globe. 

The  political  benefits  to  be  derived  from  steam  communi 
cation  between  California,  Japan,  and  China,  are  worthy 
of  serious  attention.  It  is  well  known  that  the  desire  for 
naval  supremacy,  stimulated  by  the  competitive  commercial 
spirit  of  the  age,  has  impelled  Great  Britain,  France,  and 
other  nations  to  extraordinary  exertions  to  secure  a  pre 
ponderating  influence  in  countries  with  which  they  have 
commercial  intercourse,  as  also  to  acquire  such  naval  stations 
as,  in  case  of  war,  would  enable  them  to  command  the  seas. 
It  is  evident,  however,  that  when  the  United  States  becomes 
the  channel  of  communication  between  Europe  and  the  East ; 
when  an  extensive  and  diversified  commerce  shall  spring 
up  between  California  and  the  rich  countries  on  the  western 
border  of  the  North  Pacific ;  when  American  steamships 
regularly  visit  the  most  important  points  in  that  great  ocean, 
and  our  civilization  pours  its  steady  light  into  the  gloom  of 
those  dense  populations,  the  current  of  influence  will  change, 
and  our  country  will  then  acquire  and  hold  the  position  and 
power  to  which  she  is  legitimately  entitled. 

We  are  hopeful  of  this  enterprise,  for  the  record  of  our 
past  gives  an  abiding  confidence  as  to  our  future.  We  see 
the  variety  of  our  discoveries,  the  progress  of  our  manufac 
tures,  the  triumphs  of  our  arts,  the  achievements  of  our 
science,  the  magnitude  of  our  internal  improvements,  the 
wonderful  increase  of  our  numbers,  the  expansion  of  our 
settlements  from  ocean  to  ocean,  the  ponderous  gates  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains  flung  open  to  be  closed  no  more.  These 
proofs  of  the  past  stand  as  pledges  for  the  future. 

Pausing  at  this  great  incident  in  the  progress  of  the 
nation,  lifted  up,  as  it  were,  upon  the  vantage-ground  of 
"what  is  and  what  is  past,  we  may  catch  some  revela 
tion"  of  the  brightness  and  glory  of  that  which  is  to 
come. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  589 

"  For  I  dipt  into  the  future,  far  as  human  eye  could  see, 
Saw  the  vision  of  the  world,  and  all  the  wonder  that  would  be  ; 
Saw  the  heavens  fill  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic  sails, 
Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight,  dropping  down  with  costly  bales." 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  this  great  work,  the  Pacific  Mail 
Steamship  Company  must  look  to  the  earnest  co-operation 
of  the  commercial  men  of  New  York  and  San  Francisco. 
Their  operations,  their  traffic,  their  exchanges,  their  energy 
and  their  success  have  constituted  essential  elements  of  the 
past  prosperity  of  this  company.  And  so  it  must  in  the 
future. 

All  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  company  can  do  is  to  fur 
nish  facilities  for  the  business  of  our  mercantile  community  ; 
they  can  not,  gentlemen,  originate  or  conduct  your  opera 
tions.  You,  our  merchants,  our  bankers,  our  business  men, 
are  to  enter  into  honorable  competition  for  this  opulent 
traffic.  You  are  to  strike  out  new  paths,  to  infuse  new  ideas, 
to  create  new  markets  for  American  produce  and  American 
manufactures,  and  to  teach  the  Asiatic  world  that  we,  too,  are 
of  that  great  dominant  race,  the  Anglo-Saxon  ;  that  Anglo- 
Saxon  ability,  vigor,  and  enterprise,  and  even  Anglo-Saxon 
aggression,  finds  with  us  its  best  and  highest  development ; 
that  Providence  has  placed  its  mighty  right  hand  upon  our 
head,  and  says  to  the  first  born,  as  did  the  Patriarch  Jacob  1 
"  He  also  shall  become  a  people,  and  he  also  shall  be  great ; 
but  truly,  his  younger  brother  shall  be  greater  than  he,  and 
Ms  seed  shall  become  a  multitude  of  nations." 

I  may  be  permitted,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  envy  the  feelings 
of  the  American  resident,  as,  gazing  from  the  lofty  cliffs  of 
Hong  Kong,  his  eyes  are  greeted  with  the  sight  of  the  steam 
ship  Colorado,  that  noble  embodiment  of  native  skill  and 
native  genius,  coming  from  this  advance  outpost  of  American 
civilization.  As  he  shall  see  her  swing  round  to  her  anchor 
in  that  foreign  bay,  he  will  mark  her  lofty  decks  rising  above 
the  surrounding  shipping,  he  will  admire  her  fine  propor 
tions,  her  graceful  lines,  her  buoyant  fabric,  her  st.urdy 
strength,  her  unblenched  majesty  ;  but  he  shall  see,  ay,  and 
feel,  something  more  than  the  presence  of  a  splendid  ship, 


590  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

putting  fortli  all  her  "beauty  and  her  bravery — something 
more,  and  something  better.  He  shall  see  our  glorious  flag 
streaming  to  the  wind  ;  he  shall  feel  i '  something  of  America 
herself  before  him,  a  fragment  of  the  great  country  of  his 
birth  ;  that  in  that  floating  structure,  America  is  represent 
ed  ;  that  American  hearts  and  American  blood  animate  that 
inert  mass  ;  that  by  these,  and  such  as  these,  covering  every 
sea,  and  resting  in  every  roadstead,  that  we  are  known  to 
the  world  as  a  great  and  growing  people, — that  by  their 
power  and  their  might  we  are  able  to  demand  reparation 
and  command  respect ;  so  that,  with  the  safeguard,  "  lam 
an  American  citizen,"  we  carry  a  perpetual  protection  as 
potent  as  that  which  caused  the  Jewish  ruler  to  stay  his 
hand  upon  hearing  the  notable  warning:  "  Take  heed  what 
ihou  doest,  for  this  man  (Paul)  is  a  Roman  citizen" 

REMARKS    OF    EX-GOVERNOR    STANFORD. 

Fifth  regular  toast. — "  The  Pacific  Railroad: — The  liga 
ment  that  binds  the  Eastern  'Eng'  and  Western  'Chang' 
together."  Ex-Govenor  Stanford  replied  to  this  toast  in  the 
following  language  : — 

Mr.  Chairman  :  To  one  who  cares  to  look  into  the  future, 
this  banquet,  in  honor  and  in  celebration  of  a  line  of  steam 
ers  between  America  and  Asia,  must  prove  a  source  of 
interest.  It  shows  the  importance  of  the  result  is  apprecia 
ted.  The  command  of  the  carrying  trade  is  a  control  of  one 
of  the  essentials  of  commerce.  To  give  this  command,  two 
things  are  of  chief  importance.  One  is  superior  cheapness, 
the  other  superior  expedition  of  transportation.  It  can 
hardly  be  expected  at  this  time,  that  the  line  of  steamers 
whose  inauguration  we  celebrate,  shall  have  the  advantage 
of  cheapness,  but  it  will  have  that  of  superior  expedition, 
and  it  is  upon  this  advantage  it  must  chiefly  rely  for  success. 
It  is  for  this  the  steamship  company  must  strive  ;  and,  Mr. 
Chairman,  it  seems  to  me,  to  do  that,  their  course  should  be  as 
direct  as  possible.  But  enough  of  this,  it  is  but  a  hint  that 
I  wish  to  give,  and  perhaps  I  intrude.  But  I  do  not  forget 
that  the  Government  has  given  aid  for  a  purpose,  and  I  wish 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  591 

to  see  that  purpose  accomplished.  This  is  an  effort  to  open 
up  and  secure  largely  the  commerce  of  a  people  more  nu 
merous  than  the  people  of  all  Europe  and  America  ;  a  peo 
ple  whose  civilization  was  old  when  that  of  Europe  began, 
and  who  have  maintained  it  to  this  day.  They  are  an  agri- 
cultural,  manufacturing,  and  commercial  people,  wise  in 
government,  arts,  and  science. 

The  prize  we  struggle  for,  is  the  commerce  of  such  a 
people. 

As  an  auxiliary  to  that  end,  the  Pacific  Railroad  will 
play  no  inconsiderable  part.  Indeed,  upon  another  occa 
sion,  I  might  be  tempted  to  say  it  would  perform  the 
chief  part.  The  Pacific  Railroad  will  ever  be  a  monument 
to  the  enterprise  and  sagacity  of  the  American  people. 

Though  long  considered  by  them,  they  fully  awoke  to  its 
importance,  and  determined  it  should  be  built,  while  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  gigantic  civil  war  ever  known. 

It  was  on  July  the  1st,  1862,  that  the  voice  of  the  people, 
in  favor  of  a  Pacific  Railroad  expressed  a  law  to  that  effect, 
and  limited  their  appropriation  in  aid  thereof  only  by  a 
$100,000,000,  besides  12,800  acres  of  land  to  the  mile. 
Truly  a  noble  donation  to  secure  a  nobler  end— the  binding 
the  East  and  West  by  ties,  not  only  fraternal,  but  by  the 
enduring  ones  of  an  overwhelming  interest.  In  the  passage 
of  the  Pacific  Railroad  law,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  say, 
the  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company  of  California  played 
no  inconsiderable  part.  It  urged  its  passage  at  that  time 
and  in  that  form.  The  Central  Pacific  Railroad  Company 
has  asked  for  much,  but  it  has  never  asked  in  vain.  All 
that  it  has  ever  asked,  whether  at  the  hands  of  the  nation, 
of  the  State,  or  otherwise,  it  has  received,  but  it  has  never 
asked  any  thing  that  it  could  not,  and  did  not,  make  plain 
was  right  and  just  and  necessary  to  the  construction  of  the 
Pacific  Railroad. 

After  a  line  of  railroad  lias  been  selected  and  its  practi 
cability  determined,  the  chief  problem  then  to  be  solved  is 
a  financial  one.  It  was  in  that  our  company  found  its 
chief  difficulty,  and  while  it  remained  unsolved,  the  physi 
cal  difficulties— as  it  was  known  they  would  yield  to  the 


592  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

power  of  capital  and  labor — were  of  minor  importance,  and 
gave  the  company  no  uneasiness.  But  they  were  truly  of 
a  formidable  character.  The  financial  problem  has  been 
solved  ;  its  result  is  success.  The  physical  one  is  in  a  fair 
fair  way  for  solution.  Already  the  locomotive  sounds  its 
bell  and  blows  its  whistle  at  an  elevation  of  5,911  feet  in 
triumph  over  the  maximum  grade  and  the  snows  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada.  Experience  has  already  demonstrated  that 
the  provision  made  to  encounter  snow  is  amply  sufficient, 
and  that  snow  can  not  stop  the  locomotive  if  vigorously  and 
properly  met. 

Another  year  and  the  track  of  the  Central  Pacific  Rail 
road  will  be  east  of  the  Sierra  Nevadas  upon  the  plains 
beyond,  and  progressing  at  the  rate  of  a  mile  a  day  toward 
connection  with  the  Union  Pacific  and  completion  of  the 
Pacific  Railroad  in  the  year  1870. 

Then  will  the  "ligament  be  perfect  that  binds  the  Eastern 
Eng  and  Western  Chang  together."  Then,  Mr.  Chairman, 
behold  the  result !  For  America,  the  chief  control  of  the 
developed  trade  of  the  better  part  of  Asia  with  Europe  and 
America.  Our  Pacific  slope,  and  particularly  California, 
filling  rapidly  with  a  hardy,  enterprising,  and  industrious 
people,  mostly  of  our  brethren  and  sisters  of  our  old  Atlan 
tic  homes — California  will  then  commence  a  career  of  pros 
perity  hitherto  unexampled ;  and  here  on  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco  will  be  the  great  commercial  center  for  this  pros 
perous  people ;  here  will  the  commerce  of  the  Pacific  find 
its  entrepot,  and  here  will  be  one  of  the  great  cities  of  the 
world,  and  we,  fellow-citizens,  may  all  aid  in  realization  of 
the  vision. 

REMARKS    OF    REV.    A.    L.    STOXE. 

Seventh  regular  toast. — "  The  influence  of  Commerce  on 
Literature  and  the  Arts:  'Through  the  aid  of  Letters, 
Venetian  galley s  became  Venetian  galleries.' ?  Rev.  Dr.  A. 
L.  Stone  responded  as  follows  : — 

Mr.  President :  The  old  year  goes  down  to-night  upon 
the  old  past,  and  a  new  year  will  rise  to-morrow  upon  a  new 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  503 

future.  If  the  event  which  occasions  our  evening  festival 
were  only  a  piece  of  money-making  speculation,  like  an 
expedition  to  some  island  of  the  sea  to  dig  up  Captain 
Kidd's  treasure,  we  might,  perhaps,  as  many  of  us  as  hoped 
to  touch  the  profits,  put  our  heads  together  to  look  after  our 
stock  and  to  calculate  the  chances  of  our  venture.  But  no 
such  scheme  would  draw  together  in  festive  congratulation 
an  assembly  like  this  ;  no  such  thought  would  be  worthy  to 
occupy  our  minds  during  these  last  hours  of  the  dying 
year ;  no  such  venture,  however  it  might  succeed,  would 
have  power  to  inaugurate  witli  the  dawn  of  the  incoming 
year  a  brighter  future  for  America  and  humanity. 

The  real  character  of  the  event  which  makes  our  jubilee 
to-night,  has  been  well  set  forth  in  the  just  and  eloquent 
remarks  to  which  we  have  already  listened.  And  the  senti 
ment  now  offered  and  receiving  its  response  by  acclamation, 
celebrates  this  event  as  having  grand  connections  with  the 
growth  of  literature  and  the  progress  of  the  arts. 

The  first  condition  of  growth  in  literature  is  mental  ac 
tivity.  Literature  is  written  thought ;  but  there  must  be 
minds  to  think  before  there  are  pens  to  write  or  types  to 
print.  Let  a  night  of  dark  ages  come  down  upon  the  race, 
and  in  that  long  brooding  torpor  the  intellect  sleeps  and  let 
ters  are  silent.  Waken  the  mind,  rouse  the  intellect  to  a 
morning  activity,  and  thought  begins  to  be  produced. 
Thought  kindles  and  quickens  thought,  stimulates  inquiry, 
calls  forth  high  debate,  is  wedded  to  its  fellow-thoughts  in 
systems  of  truth,  and  Philosophy  is  born;  conquers  the 
secrets  and  codifies  the  laws  of  nature,  and  Science  is  cra 
dled  ;  gathers  the  records  of  the  times  and  of  past  ages,  and 
History  begins  its  stately  marches ;  stretches  forth  with  free 
wing  along  the  heights  of  imagination,  and  Poetry  takes 
her  lyre ;  summons  the  masses  to  reason  and  action,  and 
Oratory  wields  its  logic  and  pours  forth  its  burning  passion. 

And  nothing  has  such  power  to  awaken  mind,  to  shatter 
the  chains  of  its  slumber  and  startle  it  into  rising  energy,  as 
great  events.  They  are  thunderbolts  reverberating  along 
the  sky !  They  are  earthquakes  rocking  the  Continent ! 
Who  can  sleep  ? 

38 


594  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

This  is  one  bond  of  connection  by  which,  this  new  stride 
of  commerce  from  our  western  shores  to  yonder  distant 
Orient  touches  also  all  the  fair  realm  of  literature.  It  is  a 
great  awakening  event !  It  opens  drowsy  men' s  eyelids ; 
it  makes  men  think ;  it  makes  men  feel ;  it  is  itself  a  full- 
statured  thought,  leaping  forth  into  the  world  of  mind  like 
Minerva,  giver  and  goddess  of  wisdom,  from  the  head  of 
Jove. 

But  such  commerce  is  an  explorer.  Its  written  explora 
tions  are  literature.  It  is  a  student  of  geography.  The 
records  of  such  study  and  research  are  literature.  It  ques 
tions  the  products  of  divers  climes  and  the  order  of  ele 
mental  laws.  It  compares  man  with  man,  in  his  native 
original,  his  social  state,  his  governments,  his  religions,  and 
his  systems  of  education ;  and  these  questions  and  their 
answers  make  a  copious  and  living  literature.  It  bears 
abroad,  and  it  brings  home,  the  type  of  comparative  civiliza 
tions,  in  their  chief  expressions— the  coarser  and  ruder,  and 
the  more  consummate  and  refined — and  thus  stimulates  in 
vention,  and  bears  back  and  forth  the  keys  to  the  labora 
tories  of  all  the  arts. 

Tell  us  how  our  Oriental  neighbors  live,  how  they  build, 
how  they  clothe  themselves,  how  they  fashion  the  tools  of 
all  craftsmanship,  how  they  cultivate  the  ground  and  its 
various  growths,  how  they  decorate  the  halls  of  public  and 
private  wealth,  and  we  shall  find  that  we  have  something  to 
learn,  and  American  art  will  start  forth  on  new  achieve 
ments.  Tell  them  the  same  story  of  society  here — and 
this  story,  commerce,  by  its  interchanges,  is  always  repeat 
ing — and  they  will  find  that  they  can  learn  of  us  ;  and  the 
riches  of  the  two  civilizations  in  all  that  relates  both  to 
thought  and  art,  will  become  the  heritage  of  both— a  litera 
ture  and  an  art  for  one-third  of  the  human  race  ! 

Mr.  President,  this  subject  is,  of  course,  too  broad  for  a 
full  discussion  in  the  hurry  of  these  flying  festal  moments. 
These,  hints  must  suffice. 

But  does  any  man  doubt  that  this  event,  which  drives  the 
shuttle  of  commerce  back  and  forth  across  the  breadth  of 
this  great  Pacific  Sea,  weaving  a  bond  for  the  union  of  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  595 

hemispheres,  is  such  a  wakening  and  fruitful  event  as  has 
now  been  suggested  ?  Why,  if  any  of  us  can  sleep  under 
an  influence  so  rousing,  he  would  sleep  through  the  scenes 
of  the  Last  Day. 

Give  us  this  new  breadth  and  expansion  for  our  American 
enterprise  and  our  American  civilization,  and  the  intellect 
of  this  land,  in  all  that  it  knows  and  dreams  and  produces, 
will  have  such  a  new  heritage  of  wealth  and  power  as  has 
never  fallen  before  by  any  single  bequest  to  the  lot  of  any 
people.  Shut  up  a  nation  to  itself,  as  by  some  old  Tartar 
wall  that  keeps  out  every  alien  footstep  and  keeps  itself  at 
home  in  perpetual  isolation,  and  the  mind  is  stifled  and 
dwarfed,  and  all  its  progeny  declines.  Why,  sir,  the  very 
Emperor  that  built  that  famous  old  Avail  ordered  the  destruc 
tion  of  the  whole  body  of  Chinese  literature,  that  Chinese 
history  might  begin  with  his  own  dynasty.  Throw  down 
all  walls  of  exclusion  between  nation  and  nation,  and  the 
rejoicing  intellect,  following  the  prow  of  world- wide  com 
merce,  will  range  all  lands  and  peoples,  and  build  its  hives 
of  honeyed  sweets  from  the  flowering  of  every  clime  ! 

And  over  this  bridal  hour  of  the  Orient  and  the  Occident, 
thus  made  one  by  the  golden  chain  of  commerce,  we  may 
well  breathe,  in  the  name  of  literature  and  art,  and  the 
whole  of  a  Christian  civilization,  this  ancient  nuptial  bless 
ing :  "What  God  hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put 
asunder  !" 

REMARKS    OF    THE    REV.    MR.    STEBBINS. 

Eighth  regular  toast. — "  Commerce :  The  Ally  of  Religion 
and  Civilization."  Responded  to  by  Rev.  Horatio  Stebbins, 
who  said  : — 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen :  I  wish  to  acknowledge  with 
grateful  appreciation  the  honor  you  have  conferred  upon 
me,  in  giving  me  the  opportunity  to  be  present  on  this  occa 
sion,  and  to  join  in  the  festivities  appropriate  to  the  inaugu 
ration  of  this  great  maritime  enterprise.  I  am  sure,  sir,  that 
as  I  look  over  this  company  and  congratulate  myself  on  the 
enjoyment  of  your  hospitality,  I  but  reiterate  the  sentiment 


596  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

of  every  man  here  when  I  express  the  pleasure  I  fee]  in 
meeting  some  of  the  merchants  of  China  in  company,  and  in 
mutual  interchange  of  good- will,  with  the  merchants  of  San 
Francisco.  May  that  interchange  never  cease,  so  long  as 
value  seeks  equilibrium  on  the  earth,  or  the  wind  of  popular 
liberty  rushes  to  fill  the  vacuum  of  despotism. 

I  know  you  will  join  me,  gentlemen,  when  I  congratulate 
myself  and  you  at  the  presence  of  our  distinguished  fellow- 
citizen,  the  personification  of  American  commerce  from  New 
York.  There  is  a  singular  fitness  and  propriety  in  his 
going  out  in  this  ship  informed  by  fire  to  fulfil  the  dream 
of  Columbus  in  a  way  he  never  dreamed,  and  finding  the 
Orient  by  the  Occidental  passage.  May  an  Almighty  Prov 
idence  of  goodness  protect  him  and  his  family  ;  and  when 
he  has  made  the  circuit  of  the  earth,  and  explored  the 
habitations  of  mankind,  may  he  sit  down  at  his  own  fireside, 
and  move  again  in  the  large  circle  of  influence  to  which  he 
belongs. 

We,  in  California,  owe  much  to  the  Pacific  Mail  Steam 
ship  Company.  That  company  is  a  fine  illustration  of  the 
energy  and  foresight  of  American  citizens.  To  call  it  a 
monopoly  is  idle  and  unintelligent.  The  Company  is  suc 
cessful  in  the  open  competition  of  the  world  ;  and  success 
always  and  everywhere  implies  a  certain  degree  of  exclusion. 
Whatever  I  do,  and  do  better  than  anybody  else  can,  men 
being  the  judge,  nobody  can  get  away  from  me.  And  in 
that  line  all  there  is  will  flow  to  me.  If  I  can  saw  wood 
better  than  anybody  else,  and  can  saw  all  there  is,  no  other 
saw-buck  can  stand  beside  me.  Just  to  the  extent  to  which 
any  business  is  limited  by  natural  laws,  it  is  exposed  to  the 
exclusiveness  of  success.  But  a  great  and  successful  com 
pany  in  a  country  like  ours,  can  not,  in  the  long  run,  be 
oppressive  or  unjust.  Its  normal  law  is  rectitude,  honor, 
and  fair  play.  Any  company  or  corporation  is  doomed  that 
forgets  that  there  are  two  parties  in  all  transactions,  that  the 
public  is  its  customer,  and  if  not  on  the  whole  suited,  will 
find  somewhere  else  to  go.  That  stands  to  reason,  and  it 
stands  to  common  sense. 

The  Pacific  Mail  Company  has  arisen  just  as  California 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  597 

has  arisen:  just  as  the  American  people  have  taken  this 
country  and  reduced  it  to  order  and  civilization.  It  is  the 
commercial  spirit  rising  parallel  with  the  life  of  a  new 
country.  And  that,  gentlemen,  is  the  promise  of  the  future 
greatness  of  the  country.  Every  great  civilization  must 
have  commerce,  because  it  must  be  in  relation  with  the 
world  of  mankind.  It  is  common  to  speak  of  the  American 
people  as  a  progressive  people.  Now,  I  do  not  wish  to 
indulge  any  extravagant  sentiments  or  screaming  rhetoric. 
We  American  people  are  a  common  sort  of  people,  born  of 
respectable  parents,  and  enjoyed  in  our  childhood  the 
benefits  of  the  common-school.  We  do  not  trace  our  lineage 
to  aristocratic  blood.  Most  of  us,  if  we  go  back  two  gen 
erations,  run  against  the  plow  handles  or  a  shoemaker's 
bench.  Our  grandmothers  knit  stockings,  mended  mittens, 
and  made  themselves  useful  in  the  frugal  administration  of 
affairs.  But  we  have  come  here  just  as  we  were,  graduates 
of  town  meetings,  with  little  learning  of  the  schools  ;  and  I 
affirtn,  not  in  frivolous,  not  in  weak  exultation,  but  with 
profound  reverence  for  the  Almighty  Providence  of  human 
lot,  that  we  have  displayed  an  instinct  of  social  order  with 
out  a  parallel,  all  things  considered,  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Why,  Governor,  you  came  here  when  this  city  was  a  desert, 
under  contract  at  fair  wages  per  month,  and,  thank  God, 
and  honor  to  you,  you  kept  your  contract !  (Let  no  man 
say  I  have  California  on  the  brain,  for  I  have  not ;  but  I 
have  a  profound  faith  in  mankind  in  my  heart.) 

Now,  commerce  is  the  firm  ally  of  this  social  order  which 
we  have  established  here,  and  stands  in  strong  support  over 
against  the  provincial  tendencies  of  agriculture  and  mining. 
It  puts  us  in  relation  with  the  world,  and  supplements  the 
partial  and  narrow  views  of  men.  It  universalizes  our  con 
ceptions  of  history,  of  men  and  nations.  When  in  th.3  former 
geologic  eras  Jhe  Almighty  shook  terribly  the  earth  and 
opened  yonder  gate  of  gold,  he  signified  the  conservation  of 
a  nationality,  humane  and  world- wide.  And  the  magnifi 
cent  ship,  one  of  the  noblest  in  the  steam  marine  of  the 
world — she  partakes  of  the  universality  of  the  spirit  of  com 
merce  ;  and  as  we  look  at  her,  she  rises  in  splendor  of  idea 


598  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

above  all  provincialism  of  thought  or  feeling— the  bride  of 
the  world- wide  sea.  She  is  no  more  the  Pacific  Company's 
ship.  She  is  not  a  California  ship,  but  she  is  an  American 
ship!  She  carries  America!  And  let  her  commander's 
breast  swell  with  pride,  and  his  eyes  fill  with  tears  of  joy, 
as  she  trembles  beneath  his  feet  in  sympathy  with  the  larger 
thought !  (Gentlemen,  I  give  you  the  health  of  Captain 
Bradbury,  the  accomplished  gentleman,  the  enthusiastic 
and  skillful  navigator.) 

But  commerce  is  not  only  the  ally  of  civilization  by  force 
of  cosmopolitan  character  and  idea  ;  she  is  the  ally  of  reli 
gion  also,  by  bringing  men  together  on  the  basis  of  what  is 
common  to  all.  What  men  need  is  to  know,  and  under 
stand,  and  appreciate  one  another.  The  barriers  of  lan 
guage,  religion,  manners,  are  to  be  overcome  by  mild 
persuasion  of  mutual  interests  and  good  will.  To  this  end, 
international  law,  which  is  for  the  regulation  of  commercial 
intercourse,  is  a  kind  of  gospel  of  common  sense,  done  into 
justice  and  right.  For  this  reason,  commerce  carries  reli 
gion  where  a  missionary  could  not  go.  If  it  be  said  that  the 
wrongs  perpetrated  in  the  name  of  commerce  forbid  such  a 
view,  I  reply  that  the  wrongs  perpetrated  in  the  name  of 
religion  are  as  great.  We  must  judge  things  by  their  real 
quality,  not  by  their  accidents.  One  of  the  ablest  American 
travelers  I  have  met  told  me  that  an  American  man-of-war, 
lying  in  the  harbor  of  Beyrout,  would  be  worth  more  in 
moral  impression  than  all  the  missionaries.  Sir,  religion  is 
that  sentiment  in  the  human  breast,  universally  diffused 
wherever  man  is  found,  which  lifts  up  the  mind  to  commune 
with  the  Almighty  Maker  of  the  universe,  and  finds  his 
signature  written  most  distinctly  upon  the  frame  of  man 
himself.  And  whatever  the  intercourse  of  nations  or  peo 
ples — if  established  in  the  instincts  of  man's  moral  nature, 
if  it  has  a  place  anywhere  in  the  eternal  kingdom  of  right, 
if  it  appeals  to  man  as  man,  free,  intelligent,  accountable — 
it  brings  him  into  the  region  of  universal  moral  conceptions, 
whose  splendor  and  truth  are  the  cosmopolitan  glory  of  the 
City  of  God. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  599 


DISUNION. 

THERE'S  a  sound  on  the  wind,  there's  a  shrill,  chilling  cry 
Going  past  on  the  blast,  through  the  comfortless  sky ; 
In  the  night  is  a  wailing,  that  keenly  hath  clove 
Through  my  heart,  like  the  pain  of  an  unhappy  love; 
And  the  Xation,  in  slumbers  she  will  not  resign, 
Is  vexed  and  disturbed  bv  a  sound  and  a  sio-n : 

V  &  - 

And  sobs  in  her  sleep,  as  the  warnings  go  past, 

"  There  is  danger — and  discord — and  death  on  the  blast." 

And  whence  comes  the  wind  ?  and  what  causes  the  pain  ? 

And  wherefore  this  whisper  from  Texas  to  Maine? 

And  why,  in  the  fullness  and  depth  of  her  rest, 

Should  the  heart  of  our  Mother  in  dreams  be  distressed? 

Potomac's  blue  waters  are  clear  as  the  skies, 

And  the  chiefs  that  sit  by  them  are  valiant  and  wise  ; 

But  a  low,  laughing  fiend  to  their  counsels  has  stole, 

And  darkens  with  tempest  the  calm  of  each  soul. 

A  poison  unwonted  corrodes  in  their  veins, 

Wild  frenzy  is  racking  their  hearts  and  their  brains  ; 

And  the  demon  still  hisses,  in  whispers  of  fear, 

"  DISUNION!   DISUNION!"  in  each  maddened  ear  : 

And  this  is  the  reason  that  pain  and  dismay 

Glide  like  ghosts  through  the  night,  and  make  pallid  the  day; 

And  from  thence  are  the  sighs  and  the  sounds  that  have  made, 

For  her  children,  the  heart  of  our  Mother  afraid. 

Is  it  so  ?  can  it  be  ?  are  they  prophets  who  say 
That  night  shall  return  on  the  dawn  of  our  day  ? 
Shall  the  despots  whose  hootings  ring  sharp  in  our  ears, 
Exult  in  our  downfall — rejoice  in  our  tears? 
Was  it  all  but  a  dream,  the  bright  vision  that  came 
To  the  camps  of  our  fathers,  through  battle  and  flame  ? 
Did  she  whisper  in  vain,  in  each  ear  as  she  passed, 
"  There's  a  temple  found  here  for  Jehovah  at  last ! 
On  this  fresh  land  of  God  ye  shall  worship  and  dwell, 
And  the  sound  of  your  joy  shall  be  tyranny's  knell; 
Pass  on  through  the  fire — by  your  trials  made  strong, 
Leave  not  on  your  borders  one  foot-print  of  wrong. 


600  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

Be  as  one,  and  cling  close,  like  the  drops  in  the  wave, 
Strike  firm,  and  fear  not — a  free  home  or  the  grave !" 
Oh,  woe  to  the  land  where  these  words  are  forgot ! 
Alas  !  for  the  nation  where  union  is  not ! 
Mourn,  mourn,  and  lament  for  the  ill-fated  shore, 
The  dust  of  whose  martyrs  is  holy  no  more  ! 

Ye  millions  who  toil  in  the  South  or  the  North — 

Ye  with  arms  strong  as  iron,  and  hearts  of  true  worth, 

Wipe  the  sweat  from  your  brows,  look  aloft  and  behold, 

On  the  sweeping  west  wind  there's  a  banner  unrolled ; 

Not  an  inch  of  that  flag  but  was  purchased  by  strife, 

Not  a  thread  in  its  woof  but  was  won  by  a  life  : 

'Tis  your  hope — your  last  hope  !  while  it  floats  there  shall  be 

A  land  undivided,  a  race  that  is  free. 

Will  you — dare  you  stand  idle  while  madmen  draw  near 

And  rend  the  bright  banner  that  cost  you  so  dear? 

Speak  aloud — they  shall  listen — for,  oh,  they  know  well 

Their  life  is  your  favor,  your  anger  their  knell. 

One  shout  for  the  Union  !  one  cheer  for  the  band 

Who  reared  the  starred  flag  in  the  night  of  our  land, 

And  we'll  see  who  shall  whisper  "  disunion  "  or  "  strife," 

When  the  heart  of  the  nation  rekindles  with  life  ! 

God  shield  thee,  Green  Erin  !  for  manhood,  no  more 
Has  homestead,  or  harvest,  or  hope  on  thy  shore ; 
And  France,  like  a  Titan  awakened  by  pain, 
Struck  only  one  blow,  and  now  slumbers  again. 
Italia  lies  bleeding  and  Kossuth  has  fled, 
While  the  band  that  hung  round  him  are  exiled  or  dead. 
Here  lonely  we  only  the  flag  have  unfurled, 
In  whose  shadow  may  rest  the  oppressed  of  the  world ; 
And  woe  to  the  foe,  who  by  discord  or  war, 
Would  quench  in  our  standard  the  beams  of  a  star ! 
Though  his  heart  be  of  iron,  his  hand  made  so  bold 
As  to  break  the  strong  hand  that  was  woven  of  old ; 
Let  him  heed  well  the  sequel ;  our  banner  of  blue 
Has  stripes  for  the  foeman,  as  stars  for  the  true, 
And  the  sun  shall  not  shine  on  the  men  that  shall  see 
Dismembered  or  conquered  the  Flag  of  the  Free. 

EDWARD  POLLOCK,  in  1858. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  601 


THE    MISSION    OF    THE    TEACHER. 


iHE  faithful  teacher,  occupying  as  he  does,  for  a 
time,  the  parent's  place,  must  feel  a  similar 
anxiety,  as  he  looks  round  upon  those  placed 
under  his  charge.  His  situation  is  inferior  in 
responsibility  only  to  that  of  the  parent.  In 
deed,  since  so  many  parents  neglect  their  duty 
in  this  respect,  his  influence  upon  those  who  continue  for  any 
length  of  time  under  his  charge,  is  probably  not  surpassed 
by  that  of  any  other  class  of  men  in  the  community.  He 
must  often  seriously  ask  what  will  be  the  lot  of  those  com 
mitted  to  his  trust.  Could  the  veil  with  which  Heaven  con 
ceals  the  future  be  removed,  should  he  belold  this  noble 
and  ingenuous  boy  with  heart  full  of  aspirations  after  all 
excellence,  still  rising  higher  and  higher,  or  would  he  have 
descended  from  the  lofty  heights  of  honorable  renown,  and 
become  dishonored,  degraded,  and  corrupt?  This  fair  girl, 
with  the  light  of  heaven  in  her  eye,  and  its  purity  surround 
ing  her  as  with  an  atmosphere  of  holiness,  would  she  be 
seen  still  the  same  in  her  spotlessness  and  innocence,  or 
would  the  light  be  extinguished,  the  glory  have  departed, 
and  nothing  remain  but  the  wreck  of  what  was  once  so 
lovely  and  so  promising? 

It  is  related  that  an  Eastern  prince  once  offered  a  prize  to 
be  given  to  the  most  beautiful  boy  in  all  his  dominions. 
Many  were  presented  for  the  premium,  but  it  was  bestowed, 
by  acclamation,  upon  one  for  his  transcendent  and  angelic 
loveliness.  So  beautiful  a  boy  had  never  been  seen  upon 
the  earth  before.  Some  years  after,  the  same  prince  again 
offered  a  prize — but  this  time  it  was  for  the  ugliest  man  to 
be  found  in  all  his  possessions.  Diligent  search  was  made  ; 
many  exhibited  themselves  to  view,  of  all  kinds  and  degrees 
of  ugliness,  but  among  them  it  was  difficult  to  make  a 
choice,  until  one  day  there  was  brought  into  the  royal  pres 
ence  a  being,  if  he  could  be  called  man,  so  hideous,  so  loath- 


602  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

some,  so  bestial,  that  the  people  shuddered  while  they  gazed 
upon  him.  Sin  had  stamped  its  polluting  mark  upon  every 
feature  ;  from  every  wrinkle  in  that  horrible  face  stared  out 
a  vice.  Upon  inquiry,  it  was  ascertained  that  this  frightful 
and  disgusting  wretch  had  been  the  attractive  and  lovely 
boy.  A  life  of  intemperance,  sensuality,  and  iniquity,  had 
made  the  awful  change.  God  save  our  pupils  from  any  and 
all  the  causes  tending  to  produce  so  terrible  an  alteration. 

In  view  of  the  great  responsibility  pressing  upon  every 
teacher  to  do  all  in  his  power  to  train  up  his  pupils  to  a  life 
of  virtue  and  excellence,  I  invite  your  attention  to  some 
remarks  upon  the  importance  of  moral  instruction.  I  have 
a  fear  that  some  few  teachers  (I  know  they  must  be  very 
few)  may  think  their  duty  done,  if  they  preserve  good 
order  in  the  school,  and  give  instruction  to  their  scholars  in 
the  course  of  study  prescribed.  But  no  teacher  who  has  an 
adequate  sense  of  the  responsibilities  devolving  upon  him, 
can  entertain  this  opinion.  His  duty  is  not  performed  by 
merely  cultivating  the  intellect.  He  must  also  educate  the 
heart.  No  parent  would  consider  any  teacher  fit  for  his 
post,  who  not  only  did  not  check  even  the  slightest  infringe 
ment  of  morality,  but  who  did  not  endeavor  to  elevate  his 
whole  school  to  a  high  standard  of  moral  excellence.  To 
think  otherwise  is  a  great  mistake.  And  the  popular 'notion 
of  education  falls  in  with  and  confirms  this  mistake.  Talk 
about  giving  a  young  man  the  advantages  of  education, 
and  the  thoughts  immediately  run  on  what  is  taught  in 
schools  and  colleges.  Speak  of  giving  a  young  lady  a  fin 
ished  education,  and  almost  every  one  wishes  to  have  the 
seminary  pointed  out  where  she  can  accomplish,  in  the 
shortest  space  of  time,  botany,  French  and  Italian,  music 
and  drawing,  besides  a  few  of  the  ordinary  branches.  As 
if  what  is  taught  in  schools  and  seminaries  were  able,  of 
itself,  to  make  one  either  great,  or  good,  or  happy. 

PKOF.  GEO.  W. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  603 


REMINISCENCES    OF    COMMODORE    STOCKTON. 


gallant  little  "sailor-general,"  who  filled  so 
conspicuous  a  place  in  the  early  history  of  your 
State,  has  gone  to  his  rest.  He  died  quite  sud 
denly,  four  days  ago,  at  his  home  in  Princeton, 
his  disease  being,  it  is  said,  cholera  morbus. 
The  overland  mail  will  have  given  you  such 
particulars  as  the  public  may  desire  to  know,  and  a  choice 
of  obituary  notices.  Such  of  the  latter  as  I  have  seen  give 
all  the  fame  of  the  conquest  of  California  to  the  departed 
commodore.  Poor  Sloat,  who  so  cleverly  blinded  the  eyes 
of  the  British  Admiral  on  the  lower  coast  and  reached 
Monterey  ahead  of  him,  hoisting  his  country's  flag,  and 
thereby  preventing  California  from  falling  into  the  hands  of 
John  Bull  ;  and  Fremont,  who  helped  to  organize  the  revo 
lution  which  terminated  in  the  joint  movement  by  sea  and 
land  against  the  Mexican  authorities,  and  finally  drove  them 
out  of  the  country  —  both  these  men  are  passed  over  in  silence, 
and  Stockton  is  lauded  as  the  conqueror  of  California.  Well, 
this  is  the  way  the  muse  of  history  does  her  work  in  these 
days.  I  don't  know  that  I  have  any  quarrel  with  her,  how 
ever.  Stockton  certainly  deserves  well  at  the  hands  of  the 
future  historian  of  your  coast.  His  indomitable  pluck  and 
self-will,  joined  to  his  insatiable  thirst  for  popularity,  hast 
ened  the  progress  of  political  events,  and  brought  California 
conspicuously  before  the  nation  as  the  first  fruits  of  the  war 
with  Mexico.  Stockton  arrived  on  the  coast  in  the  month 
of  July,  1846.  The  old  frigate  Congress,  burned  in  Hampton 
Roads  by  the  rebel  Merrimac,  was  his  flag-  ship.  I  remem 
ber  his  arrival  and  reception  by  the  citizens  of  Yerba  Buena. 
It  was  a  gala  day  in  the  little  old-fashioned  half-Mexican 
town,  and  in  honor  of  his  coming  the  first  printing  press  in 
troduced  there  was  set  up,  and  the  order  of  exercises  at  the 
fete  printed  on  blue  satin.  Frank  Ward,  (formerly  of  Ward 
&  Smith,)  was  Marshal  of  the  day,  and  W.  H.  Russell 
(subsequently  Fremont's  Secretary  of  State,  and  latterly  of 


604:  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  firm  of  Russell,  Majors  &  Co.,  St.  Louis),  was  orator, 
clad  in  broadcloth  and  "  moccasins."  The  commodore 
landed  at  the  foot  of  Washington  Street,  and  was  received 
by  the  orator  and  committee  at  the  junction  of  Montgomery 
Street.  "We  receive  you,  commodore,  at  high- water  mark," 
were  the  first  welcoming  words  of  Russell  (the  place  has  con 
siderably  changed  since  then).  Stockton  (the  sailors,  who 
loved  him  dearly,  always  called  him  "Fighting  Bob")  re 
plied  in  a  grandiloquent  speech.  Alluding  to  the  breaking 
out  anew  of  the  insurrection  in  the  South,  of  which  he  had 
just  received  tidings,  Stockton  declared  that  if  one  hair  of 
the  head  of  any  of  the  brave  garrison  he  had  left  at  Santa 
Barbara  should  be  harmed  "he  would  wade  knee- deep  in 
his  own  blood  to  avenge  it."  As  Stockton  was  small  of 
stature  this  was  regarded  as  a  tremendous  sacrificial  offer. 
Luckily,  it  was  not  required  to  be  kept.  The  first  editor  of 
the  California  Star  (E  Pluribus  Jones)  during  Stockton's 
campaign  in  the  South,  was  not  very  complimentary  in  his 
allusions  to  the  sailor-general.  "  He  has  been  puffing  and 
blowing  around  the  country  since  his  arrival,"  said  he,  "  like 
a  stranded  grampus,  cracking  himself  up  as  the  greatest  case 
out."  Stockton  crossed  the  Plains  in  June,  1847,  on  his  re 
turn  to  the  Eastern  States,  being  in  some  haste  to  lay  before 
the  department  his  report  of  operations  in  California,  and, 
if  possible,  to  anticipate  General  Kearny's  version  of  the 
facts  relating  to  their  conflict  of  jurisdiction  and  the  course 
pursued  regarding  Fremont.  In  1840  Stockton  resigned  his 
position  in  the  navy,  and  in  1851  was  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate  from  his  native  State,  New  Jersey.  The 
Newark  Advertiser  of  this  week  notices  the  succeeding 
events  in  the  life  of  the  commodore  as  follows  :— 

"  During  the  progress  of  Gen.  Lee  through  Pennsylvania 
in  1863,  Commodore  Stockton  was  appointed  by  Governor 
Parker  major-general  in  chief  of  the  militia  of  New  Jersey, 
and  had  the  State  been  invaded  it  is  well  known  that  he  was 
prepared  to  take  command  in  person  in  defense  of  the  line  of 
the  Delaware. 

"  Commodore  Stockton  was  always  a  man  of  marked  and 
decided  character.  His  influence  and  control  over  men  was 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  605 

very  great.  He  could  not  be  a  common  man,  put  him  where 
you  would  ;  and  he  was,  above  all,  intensely  a  Jersey  man. 
His  sudden  death  produces  a  shock  throughout  the  State, 
and  it  will  be  long  felt  as  a  loss  of  no  ordinary  character." 
— New  York  Correspondent  Sacramento  Union,  Oct.,  1866. 


THE    MINER. 

THE  eastern  sky  is  blushing  red, 

The  distant  hill-tops  glowing, 
The  river  o'er  its  rocky  bed 

In  idle  frolics  flowing  ; 
'Tis  time  the  pick-ax  and  the  spade 

Against  the  rocks  were  ringing, 
And  with  ourselves,  the  mountain  stream 
A  song  of  labor  singing. 

The  mountain  air  is  fresh  and  cold, 

Unclouded  skies  bend  o'er  us  ; 
Banks,  rich  in  hidden  dust  of  gold, 

Lie  temptingly  before  us. 
"We  need  no  Midas'  magic  wand, 

Nor  wizard-rod  divining ; 
The  pick-ax,  spade,  and  brawny  hand 

Are  sorcerers  in  mining. 

When  labor  closes  with  the  day, 

To  simple  fare  returning, 
We  while  the  evening  hours  away 

Around  our  camp-fires  burning  ; 
Stretched  round  the  fading,  flickering  light, 

We  watch  the  stars  above  us, 
Then  bid  the  world  and  care  good  night, 

And  dream  of  those  who*  love  us. 

JOHN  SWETT. 


606  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

SAN    FRANCISCO    TWENTY    YEARS    AGO. 

From  the  S.  F.  Bulletin,  April  1,  1868. 

I 

X 

jHE  first  newspaper  printed  at  San  Francisco 
"  was  the  California  Star,  a  weekly  journal 
about  half  or  two- thirds  the  size  of  the  present 
Dispatch,  published  by  Samuel  Brannan  and 
edited  first  by  E.  P.  Jones  and  afterward  by 
E.  C.  Kemble.  The  first  number  was  issued 
January  9th,  1847,  and  dated  at  Yerba  Buena.  The  present 
name  of  our  city  did  not  appear  at  the  head  of  the  paper 
until  March  13,  1847,  when  the  editor  published  an  editorial 
announcing  that  the  change  of  name  had  been  legally  made 
and  giving  the  testimony  of  Alcalde  Washington  A.  Bartlett 
(father  of  the  Cuban  diamond-wedding  bride),  that  the  place 
was  called  San  Francisco  in  some  old  Spanish  papers.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  it  had  been  so  called  in  a  gubernatorial  doc 
ument  as  long  ago  as  1835. 

A    REMARKABLE    PREDICTION. 

A  week  before,  the  Star  contained  the  following  predic 
tion,  which  is  the  more  remarkable  because  at  that  time  the 
gold  discovery  at  Sutter's  Mill,  Coloma,  had  not  been  made: 

"  The  town  of  Yerba  Buena  is  no  doubt  destined  to  be 
the  Liverpool  or  New  York  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  At  this 
point  will  be  concentrated  nearly  all  the  commercial  enter 
prise  and  capital  engaged  and  invested  in  the  Pacific  trade. 
The  position  of  the  town  for  commerce  is  unrivaled,  and 
never  can  be  rivaled,  unless  some  great  convulsion  of  na 
ture  shall  produce  a  new  harbor  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
equaling  in  beauty  and  security  our  magnificent  bay. 
Without  difficulty  or  danger,  ships  of  any  burden  can  at 
all  times  enter  the  harbor,  which  is  capacious  enough  to 
contain  the  navies  of  the  whole  world.  The  extensive  and 
fertile  countries  watered  by  the  Sacramento  and  San  Joaquin 
rivers,  and  the  numerous  navigable  creeks  emptying  into 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK  607 

the  bay,  must,  when  they  are  settled  upon  with  an  indus 
trious  population,  as  they  soon  will  be,  pour  their  products 
in  this  place,  and  receive  in  exchange  from  our  merchants 
all  their  supplies  of  luxuries  and  manufactures, 

"  All  the  products  of  the  gold,  silver,  copper,  iron,  and 
quicksilver  mines,  with  which  the  country  abounds,  must 
be  concentrated  here  for  manufacture  and  export.  In  a  few 
years  our  wharves  and  streets  will  present  a  scene  of  busy 
life,  resembling  those  witnessed  in  Liverpool,  New  Orleans, 
and  New  York.  Mechanics  and  artisans  from  all  parts  of 
the  world  will  flock  here,  and  we  shall  be  in  the  full  enjoy 
ment  of  all  the  elegancies  and  luxuries  of  the  oldest  and 
most  polished  countries  of  the  globe.  This  is  no  fancy 
sketch,  but  on  the  contrary,  all  who  now  read  may  live  to 
see  it  fully  verified." 

PIONEER    ARRIVAL    AND    PIONEER    FAITH. 

The  same  paper  in  which  this  remarkable  prediction 
appeared,  contained  an  account  of  the  arrival,  on  the  6th  of 
March,  1847,  of  the  ship  TJiomas  H.  Perldns,  with  Col. 
Stevenson  and  part  of  his  regiment,  and  of  the  sufferings 
of  the  Donner  and  other  emigrants  who  were  overtaken  by 
winter  on  the  summit  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.  In  glancing 
over  the  files  of  the  Star  subsequent  to  the  above  date,  we 
are  struck  by  the  accurate  knowledge  it  displays  of  the 
resources  and  capabilities  of  the  State,  and  by  its  firm  faith 
that  California  would  soon  enter  upon  a  great  destiny. 
Before  the  gold  discovery  which  caused  the  first  rush  of 
immigration,  the  paper  published  numerous  articles  expa 
tiating  truthfully  upon  the  prolific  nature  of  the  soil,  ad 
mirable  character  of  the  climate,  and  commercial  advan 
tages  of  the  port.  The  timber  and  fisheries  of  the  coast 
were  dwelt  upon  often.  Attention  was  invited  to  the 
inducements  for  grape-growing. 

THE    FIRST    OVERLAND    EXPRESS. 

The  sagacity  and  enterprise  of  the  Star  were  further 
shown  by  sending  a  special  express  across  the  plains  with 


608 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


letters  and  papers,  thus  anticipating  the  Pony  Express 
idea  of  later  years.  In  the  issue  for  January  29,  1848, 
was  the  following  notice  :— 

' '  The  California  Star  Express  (60  days  to  Independence, 
Mo.)  will  leave  this  place  on  the  first  of  April,  and  New 
Helvetia  (now  Sacramento),  on  the  15th.  Postage  on 
letters  50  cents." 


_=      _== 


JiMlGBAXTS  FORDING  PLATTE  BIVEtt. 


A  special  number  of  the  Star  was  prepared  to  go  by  this 
Express,  giving  an  amount  of  information  concerning  Cal 
ifornia,  that  for  the  time  was  very  large  and  accurate. 


FIRST    REPORT    OF   THE    GOLD    DISCOVERIES. 

The  issue  of  March  18,  1848,  contained  the  first  notice 
of  the  gold  discoveries,  as  follows  :— 

"We  were  informed  a  few  days  since  that  a  very  val 
uable  silver  mine  was  situated  in  the  vicinity  of  this  place  ; 
and  again,  that  its  locality  was  known.  Mines  of  quick 
silver  are  being  found  all  over  the  country.  Gold  has  been 
discovered  in  the  northern  Sacramento  districts,  about  forty 
miles  above  Sutter's  Fort.  Rich  mines  of  copper  are  said 
to  exist  north  of  these  bays." 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  009 

Another  item  mentioned  rather  derisively  that  some  silver 
hunters  had  found  coal  ' '  enough  to  provide  the  proposed 
line  of  Panama  steamers  with  fuel."  The  gold  discovery 
was  admitted  to  have  caused  much  excitement.  The  white 
population  of  San  Francisco  at  this  time  was  thus  stated : 
"Males  (adult),  575;  females  (adult),  177;  children  (of 
ages  proper  to  attend  school),  60.  This,  as  ascertained  Tby 
the  Board  of  School  Trustees,  in  recently  canvassing  the 
town,  is  correct.  Scarcely  eight  months  since  the  total 
number  of  whites  was  375.  There  has  been  over  an  hun 
dred  per  cent,  increase  within  this  time." 

A    PROPHETIC    VIEW    OF    THE    PROSPECTS    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

The  issue  of  the  Star  for  April  1,  1848— just  twenty 
years  ago — consisted  of  six  pages,  especially  prepared  for 
transmission  by  the  "  California  Star  Express."  Six  broad 
columns  were  occupied  with  an  able  article  entitled  "The 
Prospects  of  Calfornia,"  written  by  Dr.  Y.  G.  Fourgeaud 
(still  a  resident  of  San  Francisco),  who  came  to  the  coun 
try  with  his  family,  across  the  Plains,  a  year  before,  and 
who  had  just  been  elected  one  of  the  first  school  trustees 
of  the  town.  The  doctor' s  article  is  so  correct  and  full  as  to 
the  leading  facts  concerning  the  climate,  soil,  resources, 
minerals,  lumbering,  and  fishing  facilities  of  California,  that 
it  would  be  considered  valuable  at  the  present  day.  He 
enlarged  especially  upon  the  agricultural  capacities  of  the 
State,  showed  how  varied  were  its  products,  and  predicted 
that  the  State  (then  a  military  territory)  would  soon  be 
celebrated.  He  praises  the  wine  already  made  at  Los 
Angeles  as  being  equal  to  port.  He  mentions  the  successful 
cultivation  of  oranges,  olives,  melons,  apples,  peaches, 
apricots,  nectarines,  pears,  plums,  cherries,  almonds, 
quinces,  mulberries,  raspberries,  strawberries,  figs,  pome 
granates,  grapes,  cereal  grains,  vegetables,  &c.  He  records 
the  interesting  fact  that  Captain  Sutter  threw  a  few  cotton 
seeds  in  the  ground  at  his  fort,  near  Sacramento,  and  that, 
without  attention,  they  produced  vigorous  plants,  and 
yielded  fine  specimens  of  cotton.  He  relates  that  sugar-cano 

39 


610  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

had  been  successfully  reared  in  the  interior.     Tobacco  had 
also  been  produced  "up  the  Sacramento,"  and  good  cigars 
been  made  from  it  in  San  Francisco.     The  doctor  dilated 
upon  the  profits  of  farming,   telling   of  one  man    "who 
arrived  last  year,  who  has  already  cleared  §1,600  by  chickens 
and  eggs  alone."     He  predicts  that  while  the  interior  is 
bound  to  be  a  famous  agricultural  region,  San  Francisco  is 
"destined  ere  long  to  become  the  manufacturing  metropolis 
and  the  commercial  emporium  of  Western  America."    He 
adds:    "We  know  no   other  country  possessing  superior 
advantages  to  this  in  regard  to  manufactures.     Our  facilities 
in  water-power  are  as  numerous  and  as  good  as  could  be 
desired.     It  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate  our  prospects 
for  raw  materials  of  almost  every  description.     We  have 
already  mentioned  a  few — flour,  cotton,  hemp,  wool,  flax, 
leather,  &c.,  besides  minerals  of  almost  every  description, 
and  we  are  constrained  to  pass  over  many,  such  as  silk,  for 
instance,  which  we  doubt  not  will  do  well  in  this  climate." 
The  construction  of  a  continental  railroad  and  an  isthmus 
ship-canal  is  anticipated  as  certain  to  be  accomplished.     All 
this  is  set  forth  at  much  length,  and  accompanied  by  abund 
ance  of  facts.     The  want  of  an  industrial  population  is  then 
urged,  and  this  statement  made  in  conclusion:   "With  a 
climate  unsurpassed  in  its  purity  and  excellence,  with  a  soil 
as  productive  as  could  be  desired,  with  abundant  minerals 
of  almost  every  variety,  with  the  most  encouraging  agricul 
tural,  commercial,  and  manufactural  prospects,  California, 
to  become  what  it  soon  will  be,  one  of  the  happiest  portions 
of  the  world,  needs  but  one  thing — men  of  industry  and 
energy  to  develop  its  resources."     This  is  the  key-note  to 
all  the  writing  and  talking  about  our  State  for  twenty  years, 
and  much  of  our  great  progress  is  due  to  the  sagacity  and 
zeal  which  have  gone  to  keeping  it  up  in  the  press  during 
that  long  period. 


MISCELLANEOUS    REMINISCENCES. 

The  same  number  of  the  Star  from  which  the  above  is 
quoted  shows  that  the  total  exports  of  San  Francisco  for  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  611 

quarter  ending  December  31,  1847,  were  $49,597.53.  Of 
this  amount  $30,353  represented  home  products,  shipped  to 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  Mexico,  Sitka,  Peru,  and  Taliita. 
The  value  of  imports  was  $53,589.73,  from  the  Atlantic 
States,  Oregon,  Chili,  Sandwich  Islands,  Sitka,  Mexico,  and 
Bremen.  A  duty  of  twenty  per  cent.,  ad  valorem,  was  then 
paid  on  all  goods  arriving  at  this  port  from  all  parts  of  the 
globe.  The  first  Chinese  emigrants,  three  in  number,  were 
then  strangers  in  the  town,  but  the  Star  said  it  had  reliable 
information  that  a  large  emigration  might  be  expected,  which 
would  be  very  useful,  especially  for  silk  culture.  The  Star 
congratulated  its  readers  that  quiet  was  restored  to  the  Ter 
ritory  by  the  surrender  of  Castro,  the  last  Mexican  leader 
who  held  out  against  American  authority.  Colonel  (after 
ward  General)  Mason,  Military  Governor,  had  issued  a  requi 
sition  for  one  thousand  volunteers  to  garrison  Mazatlan,  and 
other  Mexican  ports  in  the  South,  our  war  with  that  country 
being  yet  unfinished,  although  rumors  of  peace  negotiations 
were  received  and  published.  Captains  Hastings  and  Hunt, 
and  Major  Hardie,  were  actively  recruiting  in  the  northern 
department,  at  Salt  Lake,  and  in  Oregon.  "Another  new 
silver  mine,"  "  the  richest  ever  discovered  in  the  Mexican 
Eepublic,"  had  been  found  four  miles  from  San  Jose.  The 
vein  was  said  to  be  "three  and  one-half  feet  thick,  having 
an  uninterrupted  run  east  for  three  miles,  the  depth  yet  un 
known."  None  of  the  early  silver  mines  of  San  Francisco 
have  been  worked,  or  realized  the  expectations  entertained 
of  them  ;  but  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  twenty  years 
ago  this  then  sober  little  village  had  its  silver  excitement, 
and  enjoyed  a  foretaste  of  the  Washoe  craze. 

PIOXEER    NEWS    ITEMS. 

The  number  of  the  Star  from  which  we  are  now  quoting, 
and  which  was  the  first  supplemental  or  special  paper  ever 
made  up  in  San  Francisco  for  Eastern  distribution  and  trans 
mission  by  express,  contains  articles  descriptive  of  the  bay 
and  town,  of  the  Pueblo  or  San  Jose  Valley,  of  Napa  Valley 
and  Santa  Cruz,  of  "  Benicia  City"  and  Suisun  Valley,  of 


612  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  Clear  Lake  country  and  Sacramento  Valley,  of  the 
King' s  Lake  or  Kern  River  country,  of  Sonoma  Yalley,  and 
other  points  in  the  Territory.  Besides  these  descriptive 
articles,  we  notice  a  column  of  Oregon  news  to  December  9, 
1847,  ma  the  Sandwich  Islands  ;  a  "monthly  marine  jour 
nal,"  market  reports,  proceedings  of  town  council,  mili 
tary  intelligence,  editorial  paragraphs,  and  advertisements. 
One  item  mentions  that  Alexander  Forbes  has  sailed  for 
Mexico  with  a  cargo  of  quicksilver  worth  $20,000,  the  pro 
duct  of  three  months'  working  of  the  New  Almaden  mine. 
The  discovery  of  copper,  sulphur,  and  saltpeter  (?)  in  the 
Clear  Lake  region  is  reported.  Quotations  are  made  from 
the  Californian,  the  second  paper  published  in  San  Fran 
cisco.  One  of  these  mentions  that  ' '  a  steamboat  is  expected 
here  in  the  course  of  next  summer  from  the  United  States, 
intended  for  the  San  Francisco  and  Sacramento  trade  ;  also, 
that  an  order  has  been  recently  forwarded  from  this  place 
to  the  States  for  one  intended  for  the  bay."  The  marine 
report  for  the  quarter  ending  March,  1848,  shows  the  arrival 
of  fourteen  vessels,  mostly  barks  and  brigs,  from  the  Sand 
wich  Islands,  Monterey,  Bodega,  San  Pedro,  Boston,  Canton, 
and  Callao.  The  prices  in  the  market  reports  average  as  low 
as  at  this  day,  if  not  lower.  In  two  months  the  gold  rush 
doubled  or  trebled  them,  and  afterward  they  went  still 
higher.  At  a  meeting  held  at  the  ' '  public  school-house  of 
San  Francisco,  March  27th,  of  which  W.  S.  Clark  was  chair 
man  and  Dr.  Fourgeaud,  secretary,  Sam.  Brannan  urged  the 
necessity  of  fitting  out  a  party  to  explore  Trinidad  Bay 
and  the  adjacent  country.  Captain  Gant,  Dr.  Marsh,  and 
Dr.  Leavenworth  (still  living  in  Sonoma),  spoke  in  the  same 
strain.  Ross,  Brannan,  and  Fourgeaud,  were  appointed  a 
committee  to  obtain  all  the  information  possible  about  the 
northern  coast  country,  and  ascertain  the  probable  cost  of 
an  exploring  expedition.  Some  of  our  readers  will  remem 
ber  that  an  expedition  was  afterward  fitted  out,  and  had  a 
pretty  hard  time." 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  613 


PRIMITIVE    LEGISLATION. FIRST    SCHOOL. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  town  council,  held  March  29th,  E.  P. 
Jones,  secretary  of  the  council,  and  "chairman  of  the 
committee  for  the  collection  of  debts  due  the  town,"  was 
authorized  to  "proceed  to  collect  licenses  and  taxes." 
Rather  a  simple  revenue  system  San  Francisco  had  in  those 
days.  A  resolution  "for  the  completion  of  Pacific  Street" 
was  passed.  It  extended  from  the  line  of  Dupont  Street  to 
Montgomery,  and  Jackson  Street  had  just  been  "extended" 
to  Sansome.  The  sellers  of  spirituous  liquors  were  licensed 
by  the  alcalde  in  those  days.  ' '  Mr.  Clark,  chairman  of  com 
mittee  for  removal  of  fences  to  their  proper  lines,  reported 
progress,  and  asked  for  further  time."  Mr.  Clark  reported 
an  auction  sale  of  town  lots.  It  would  be  interesting  to  see 
the  prices  obtained,  but  they  are  not  published.  Persons 
indebted  to  the  town,  were  authorized  to  work  on  the  new 
street  improvements  and  deduct  their  wages  from  their  town 
dues  ;  some  property-owners  would  not  object  to  doing  that 
now.  Thomas  Douglas,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  was 
announced  as  the  first  teacher  of  the  first  public  school  in 
San  Francisco,  school  to  open  on  the  third  Monday  of  April, 
1848.  The  trustees  were  V.  J.  Fourgeaud,  C.  L.  Ross 
(brother  of  D.  L.  Ross,  who  died  at  the  East,  lately),  Dr. 
John  Townsend,  John  Sirrine,  and  W.  H.  Davis.  The 
course  of  instruction  included  Latin  and  Greek,  besides  the 
highest  English  branches,  and  the  terms  were  from  §5  to  $12 
for  each  quarter  of  eleven  weeks,  followed  by  a  vacation  of 
two  weeks. 

BUSINESS    MEN    OF    TWENTY    YEARS    AGO. 

Among  the  business  advertisements  we  notice  the  names 
of  W.  H.  Davis,  Robert  A.  Parker,  Mellus  &  Howard, 
Ward  &  Smith  ("in  Montgomery  Street"),  C.  L.  Ross,  and 
C.  V.  Grillespie,  merchants  ;  of  Conway  &  Westcott,  who 
kept  the  Colonnade  House,  on  Kearny  Street,  a  few  doors 
above  Portsmouth  Square  ;  of  E.  P.  Jones,  former  editor  of 
the  Star,  who  kept  the  "Portsmouth  House  Hotel:"  of 


614  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

L.  W.  Hastings,  lawyer  ;  of  William  Beere,  furniture-maker, 
on  Clay  Street ;  of  Dr.  W.  C.  Parker,  who  offered  a  ranch 
for  sale  at  the  junction  of  the  San  Joaquin  and  Stanislaus 
rivers ;  of  McDonald  &  Buchanan,  auctioneers,  northeast 
corner  of  Portsmouth  Square.  C.  C.  Smith  notified  the 
public  that  he  kept  at  New  Helvetia  (Sacramento)  all  the 
necessary  animals  and  outfit  for  an  overland  journey,  as 
well  as  a  general  assortment  of  clothing.  J.  Laird  gave 
notice  that  he  kept  a  ferry-boat  at  Montezuma,  near  the 
present  site  of  Rio  Vista,  large  enough  to  cross  twenty  head 
of  stock,  charging  fifty  cents  a  head.  B.  K.  Thompson 
offered  a  ranch  of  640  acres  for  sale  at  Stockton,  on  condition 
that  the  purchaser  reside  upon  it  personally  or  by  tenant. 
The  "New  York  Store  "  (of  C.  L.  Ross)  was  in  receipt  of 
twentj^  barrels  of  Santa  Cruz  rum  ;  and  Santa  Cruz  was  also 
at  that  early  day  sending  lumber  to  this  port.  Several 
advertisements  appear  from  Los  Angeles,  and  Sonoma.  The 
Star  advertises  itself  at  86  a  year,  and  says  it  is  a  mistake 
with  some  people  to  imagine  that  for  the  sum  named,  they 
buy  the  editor  instead  of  the  paper. 

Our  readers  can  turn  from  this  newspaper  glimpse  of  San 
Francisco  of  twenty  years  ago  and  draw  their  own  compar 
isons.  We  will  only  add  that  the  six-page  California  Star 
of  April  1,  1848,  was  carried  overland  to  Independence,  Mo. , 
in  sixty  days,  together  with  a  batch  of  letters,  by  Nathan 
Hauk,  the  pioneer  expressman  from  San  Francisco  to  ' '  the 
States."  San  Francisco  papers  now  reach  Missouri  in  ten 
or  twelve  days,  and  New  York  in  sixteen  or  eighteen,  and 
they  are  just  as  enthusiastic  over  the  future  of  the  city  as 
were  the  Star  and  Californian. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  615 


SHKUBBEllY    ABOUT   THE    HOMESTEAD. 


EXT  in  beauty  to  flowers  and  flowering  vines, 
and  equal  in  point  of  ornamental  effect  to  both, 
we  class  the  disposition  of  shrubbery  around  the 
country  home.  It  matters  not  how  small  the 
lawn  may  be,  whether  it  contains  but  a  hundred 
square  yards  or  extends  to  the  dimensions  of  an 
acre,  groups  of  shrubs  adapt  themselves  to  all  the  require 
ments  of  the  situation,  and  clothe  what  would  otherwise 
appear  bare  and  common  with  those  graceful  and  natural 
adjuncts  which  never  appear  to  so  great  an  advantage 
as  when  beautifying  a  dwelling  in  the  country.  Trees  of 
large  growth,  unless  there  is  ample  space  for  them  to 
spread  their  branches  far  and  wide,  are  not  so  desirable  as 
shrubbery,  because  they  are  not  capable  of  producing  the 
same  results.  In  decorating  small  lawns,  the  landscape 
gardener  elicits  the  same  effects 'upon  a  diminished  scale 
with  shrubs  that  he  would  obtain  on  a  larger  area  with 
trees.  There  is,  however,  this  additional  advantage  in  favor 
of  shrubbery  which  is  not  to  be  had  with  trees  :  Shrubs  of 
fine  form  can  readily  be  so  selected  that  they  shall,  in  addi 
tion  to  their  rich  foliage,  produce  flowers  in  succession 
throughout  the  whole  season.  There  are,  for  instance,  the 
different  varieties  of  magnolia,  which  require  to  be  backed 
by  evergreens  to  exhibit  them  in  perfection — there  is  the 
pyrus  japonica,  with  its  rich  crimson  blossoms ;  the  snow 
ball,  the  flowering  currant,  the  burning  bush,  the  delicate 
orange  blossom  ;  the  lilacs,  purple  and  white,  and  a  host  of 
others,  all  beautiful,  and  many  of  them  fragrant,  and  all  of 
them  hardy  enough  to  stand  successfully  our  winters  with 
little  or  no  protection.  Groups,  of  these  interspersed  about 
a  lawn  and  rising  in  the  form  of  a  pyramid,  with  here  and 
there  a  deciduous  tree  lifting  itself  from  the  mass,  gives  an 
aspect  of  taste  and  neatness  to  the  smallest  inclosure  which 
can  never  be  attained  in  any  other  way.  We  throw  out 
these  hints  at  this  time  as  introductory  to  some  practical 


616  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

suggestions  on  a  future  occasion,  •which  we  trust  our  read 
ers  will  be  willing  to  adopt. — Rural  Register. 


INCIDENT   IN    THE    EARLY    LIFE    OF    THE    YANDEKBILTS. 
S 

JOMEWHERE  about  sixty  years  ago,  Cornelius 
Yanderbilt  commenced  life  by  running  a  "peri- 
auger"  between  Staten  Island  and  New  York. 
During  the  day  he  plied  his  vocation,  and, 
whenever  his  duties  permitted,  visited  his  sec 
ond  cousin,  Miss  Sophie  Johnson,  then  a  young 
and  comely  girl  of  sixteen,  who  also  lived  on  the  island. 
Perhaps  it  was  the  outburst  of  his  first  love  that  made  the 
young  sailor  so  ambitious,  and  inspired  him  with  the  energy 
and  enterprise  he  has  always  exhibited.  Certain  it  is,  how 
ever,  that  the  cousins  married,  and  the  old  folks  who  knew 
them  then,  speak  with  delight  of  the  handsome  pair,  for  they 
were  admitted  to  be  the  comeliest  couple  Staten  Island  had 
ever  produced.  It  is  unnecessary  to  trace  the  commodore 
from  the  time  he  was  a  ferryman  until  he  was  promoted,  or, 
more  properly,  promoted  himself,  to  the  responsible  posi 
tion  of  captain  of  a  steamboat  which  plied  between  this 
port  and  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.  At  the  latter  place,  how 
ever,  he  was  proprietor  of  a  hotel,  at  •which  passengers 
from  New  York  to  Philadelphia  used  to  take  meals,  and 
occasionally  a  night's  rest.  It  was  a  kind  of  half-way 
house.  His  wife  superintended  the  hotel  while  he  was  en 
gaged  in  his  active  aquatic  vocation.  One  evening  he  arrived 
from  New  York,  and  while  sitting  at  supper,  said  to  his 
wife  : — 

"Sophie,  I  wish  I  had  five  thousand  dollars,  in  addition 
to  what  I  have,  to  buy  shares  in  the  steamboat  line  ;  I  think 
it  would  be  a  good  investment." 

"Do  you  think  so,  Cornell?"  responded  his  thoughtful 
partner. 

"I  do,"  said  he. 

She  said  nothing  more,  but  next  day  consulted  Mr.  Gib- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  617 

bons,  and  he  advised  the  investment.  Next  evening,  at 
supper,  she  accosted  her  husband  thus  :— 

"  Cornell,  I've  spoken  to  Mr.  Gibbons  about  buying 
shares,  and  as  he  approves  of  your  idea,  there's  the  five 
thousand  dollars  ;  buy  the  shares  to-morrow." 

As  she  spoke,  she  took  the  amount  from  one  of  those  old- 
fashioned  pockets  that  used  to  be  worn  under  the  dress,  and 
handed  it  to  her  astonished  husband.  She  had  saved  the 
money  unknown  to  him,  and  it  was  probably  this  same 
money  that  floated  the  commodore  into  fame  and  fortune. 
This  incident  shows  what  the  woman  was.  The  money  was 
wisely  sown,  and,  as  is  well  known,  the  harvest  is  great. 
The  subsequent  history  of  Mr.  Yanderbilt  is  the  inheritance 
of  all  men  ;  and  though  the  part  taken  by  his  wife  in  build 
ing  up  his  immense  wealth  can  not  be  made  public,  yet  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  with  him  she  bore  the  burden  and  heat  of 
the  day,  and  incited  him  by  her  cheering  and  courageous 
words  to  embark  in  great  undertakings,  and,  by  her  wis 
dom,  conduct  them  to  successful  issues. 

In  her  home  she  was  kind  and  amiable — a  true  and  faith 
ful  wife,  a  fond  mother,  and  a  firm  friend.  It  was  in  the 
sacred  precincts  of  the  family  circle  that  she  was  best 
known  ;  it  was  there  her  good  qualities  were  most  appar 
ent  and  most  appreciated  ;  and  now  that  she  is  no  more,  her 
cautious  counsel,  her  motherly  ]ove,  and  her  bright  face, 
beaming  with  good  nature,  will  be  sadly  missed. 

Mrs.  Yanderbilt  was  no  ordinary  woman  ;  far  from  it. 
Independently  of  her  position  as  the  consort  of  one  of  the 
notable  specimens  of  self-made  men,  she  had  inherent  in 
herself  elements  that  raised  her  above  the  level  of  ordinary 
women.  She  was  just  the  woman  to  be  the  wife  of  Corne 
lius  Vanderbilt ;  intelligent,  energetic,  of  an  ardent,  hope 
ful  temperament,  and  withal  kindly,  motherly,  and  purely 
womanly.  It  is  certain  that  she.  relieved  him  of  all  the  care 
of  a  large  family,  conducting  her  household  affairs  well  and 
wisely,  superintending  the  education  of  her  children,  and 
bringing  them  up  in  the  way  they  should  go. 

She  was  the  mother  of  thirteen  children,  ten  of  whom  are 
living,  and  three  lie  beside  her  in  the  tomb ;  and  she  was 


618  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

grandmother  of  about  forty  children,  of  whom  thirty-one 
survive  her.  Take  her  all  in  all,  it  would  be  hard  to  find 
her  like  in  these  degenerate  days,  and  she  is  a  bright  exam 
ple  to  the  rising  generation  of  women  of  what  a  woman,  a 
wife,  and  a  mother  should  be.  A  high  and  holy  authority 
states  that  the  days  of  the  righteous  shall  be  threescore 
years  and  ten ;  and  she  died  full  of  years,  full  of  honor,  and 
deeply  and  widely  mourned.  —TV.  T.  Sun,  September,  1868. 


A   TALE   OF   OREGON. 


IRLS,  you  plague  the  life  out  of  me.  A  story — 
humph  !  AYhy  don't  you  take  a  book,  sit  down 
quietly,  and  read  one  ?  Because  you  want  to 
hear  me  tell  one  ?  Nonsense  !  you  can  read  a 
better  one  than  I  can  tell.  You  are  more  like 
little  children  than  great,  grown  up  girls,  and — there,  there, 
let  me  alone  !  I  suppose  I  shall  have  no  peace  till  I  spin  the 
yarn.  If  1  ever  get  into  such  a  crowd  again  !  Now,  Mahala, 
you  sit  down  there,  and  keep  still,  or  I'll  pull  your  ears. 
Angle,  take  that  seat,  and  tie  up  your  tongue  just  fifteen 
minutes  if  you  can ;  and,  Ilattie,  take  the  little  stool,  and  sit 
close  to  me.  There,  Mahala,  keep  your  fingers  off  the  piano; 

don't  pinch  me  either,  or  I  shall Well,    well — I'll  tell 

you  the  story  as  it  was  told  to  me. 

In  that  part  of  the  mountainous  region  of  Oregon  known 
as  the  Yamhill  country  lies  a  small  but  beautiful  valley, 
surrounded  by  a  high  chain  of  hills  that  gives  it  that  pic 
turesque  character  which  is  so  often  found  in  the  scenery  of 
the  Pacific  coast,  and  on  which  the  eye  rests  with  pleasure. 
This  small  valley  is  wholly  circular  in  form,  about  two  and 
a  half  miles  in  diameter,  with  a  rich  soil,  well  watered,  the 
Yamhill  river  flowing  nearly  through  its  center,  with  one  or 
two  fine  creeks  which  make  down  from  the  mountains  to 
add  their  waters  to  those  of  the  clear  and  sparkling  Yamhill. 
It  is  only  a  few  years  since  the  dark-sldnned  natives  of 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


G19 


the  mountains  claimed  this  charming  spot  as  their  own,  in 
fee-simple — a  title  which  they  possessed  by  occupation  from 
time  immemorial ;  and  it  was  a  favorite  resort  for  the  tribes 
living  in  that  vicinity  who  bore  friendly  relations  to  each 
other.  It  was  to  them  a  land  of  Egyptian  plenty,  for  the 
moose  and  the  elk,  the  deer  and  the  antelope  ranged  in  large 
herds  over  the  beautiful  valley,  affording  to  the  unsophisti 
cated  sons  of  the  forest  not  only  a  store-house  of  food  and 
raiment  of  their  skins,  but  the  excitement  of  the  chase. 


NBZ  PERCES  INDIANS,  I.  T. 

The  surrounding  hills  were  covered  with  majestic  firs  and 
oaks,  which  gave  them  the  means  of  erecting  cabins,  comfort 
able  for  them  during  the  winter  snows,  and  fuel  to  protect 
them  against  the  cold.  But  this  calm  security,  this  inert 
ness  of  life,  could  not  last  forever,  and  a  cloud  was  lowering 
over  the  heads  of  the  devoted  red  men,  which  was  to  burst 
and  sweep  them,  in  time,  not  only  from  this  mountain  para 
dise,  but  from  the  earth  itself.  The  white  men  came,  and 
when  did  the  two  races  dwell  in  harmony  together  ?  The 
stronger  rules  the  weaker,  while  the  latter  gives  way  step 
by  step  until  he  may  be  compelled  to  relinquish  all— home, 


620  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

friends,  and  country — and  is  eventually  swallowed  up  in  the 
great  changes  of  the  world,  till  even  his  memory  is  forgotten. 
The  Indian  yields  to  the  vices  of  the  white  man  without 
learning  his  virtues,  while  new  and  dissolute  habits,  with 
the  curse  of  fire-water,  soon  do  their  worst,  and  shortly  the 
"bones  of  the  Indian  race  lay  unmarked  and  unknown  in  their 
native  homes. 

When  the  whites  made  their  appearance  in  this  part  of 
Oregon,  they  found  the  natives  to  be  a  much  superior  race 
to  the  Indians  of  California.  Without  being  civilized,  they 
were  more  advanced  than  the  Digger  tribes,  for  they  built 
houses  of  wood,  and  clothed  themselves  warmly  with  the 
skins  of  the  animals  they  killed  in  the  chase  ;  they  were 
fairer  in  complexion,  braver  in  w^ar,  and  more  intellectual 
than  the  natives  of  the  south. 

Subsequently,  when  the  Americans  became  possessed  of 
the  country,  and  the  power  of  the  Indians  faded  before  the 
march  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  this  beautiful  valley  was 
set  off  by  the  Government  as  a  Reservation,  where  such 
tribes  as  chose  to  come  within  the  folds  of  the  paternal  Gov 
ernment  might  do  so.  Several  tribes  were  gathered  here. 
Individuals  of  them  adopted  the  mode  of  living  of  the  whites, 
and  worked,  planted,  and  reaped,  as  they  were  taught ;  but 
by  far  the  most  were  hangers-on,  indulging  in  the  vices  of 
their  conquerors,  making  the  problem  a  doubtful  one  if  this 
dark  mass  of  humanity  were  really  more  happy,  or  better 
off,  for  themselves,  than  when  they  ranged  the  wild  moun 
tain,  or  the  blooming  valley,  as  lords  of  the  soil. 

Here  are  now  congregated  portions  of  the  Clackamas,  the 
Tuwololy,  the  Umpquas,  the  Rogue  River,  and  Kallapoo- 
yas  tribes,  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  what  the  effect  will  be 
of  bringing  so  many  together,  some  of  which,  in  former  days, 
were  in  open  hostility  to  each  other. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  Fort  Yamhill  is  located,  and  at  this 
time,  July,  18G2,  is  garrisoned  by  soldiers  of  the  United 
States.  The  relations  existing  between  our  people  and  the 
Indians  of  the  Reservation  are  of  a  peaceful  character,  and 
a  free  communication  exists  between  them. 

A  short  time  ago,  only  a  few  weeks  since,  the  surgeon  of 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  621 

the  regiment  was  strolling  on  the  valley,  enjoying  the 
beautiful  and  grand  scenery  of  the  surroundings,  and  with 
a  good  deal  of  interest  visiting  the  villages  of  the  different 
tribes  congregated  there ;  he  called  at  the  cabin  of  one  of 
the  principal  chiefs,  and  asked  for  a  drink  of  water. 

An  elderly  but  fine-looking  Indian  presented  him  a  cup 
of  the  pure,  cool,  sparkling  element  with  a  hearty  good  will 
which  might  become  a  citizen  of  the  refined  world.  "  Drink," 
said  he,  "it  is  as  cool  as  the  mountain  snows  and  as  pure 
as  the  Spirit  of  the  Hills."  The  intelligent  look  of  the 
speaker  interested  my  friend  at  once  in  his  favor,  while  the 
neatness  of  the  house  and  its  apparent  comfort  excited  his 
surprise,  and  he  complimented  his  host  upon  its  appear 
ance. 

"  Yes,"  replied  the  Indian,  in  his  own  language  ;  "it  is 
better  than  shivering  in  the  winter  cold  in  our  old  houses, 
and  it  is  better  to  raise  the  good  things  of  life  in  the  ground, 
rather  than  gather  seeds  of  the  wild  grass  on  the  plains. 
White  men  are  great,  while  the  red  man  is  weak.  We  are 
children  beside  them,  and  they  teach  us  much  that  is  good, 
with  much  that  is  bad.  But  all  Indians  will  not  learn  good. 
Some  like  the  shadows  of  the  hills  and  the  darkness  of  the 
forest — they  keep  their  spirits  in  the  shade,  away  from  the 
sunlight  of  the  white  man' s  knowledge. ' ' 

' '  Who  are  you,  that  talks  so  much  like  the  white  man  f ' 
asked  the  surgeon,  in  surprise.  ' '  Indeed,  all  Indians  are 
not  like  you." 

The  Indian  straightened  himself  to  his  full  height  with 
dignity,  while  he  slowly  replied,  as  if  with  conscious  pride, 
though  with  something  of  native  hyperbole : — 

"I  am  great  with  my  people.  I  am  the  Great  Chief  of 
the  Yamhill  country.  I  am  the  fir-tree  of  the  mountains. 
My  spirit  is  with  the  clouds  ;  my  strength  is  with  the  cougar. 
My  bow  was  tough,  my  hand  was  strong,  my  heart  knew 
no  fear,  my  enemies  fied  from  my  war-path." 

"  Great,  and  brave,  and  good,  you  must  be  happy." 

"Ugh!  happy!  My  heart  is  boiling  in  the  furnace  of 
the  fiery  mountain."  And  his  eye  seemed  lighted  with 
strange  luster. 


622  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

"How!  a  man  like  you,  with,  trouble  to  oppress  his 
heart,  with  every  thing  so  nice  about  you  ?  Do  not  your 
wife  and  children  make  your  heart  glad?" 

His  countenance  became  agitated,  and  some  internal 
struggle  seemed  heaving  his  manly  breast.  Subduing  his 
emotion,  he  replied  : — 

"  Stranger,  do  you  think  the  red  man  has  no  trials  ?  Do 
you  think  the  river  of  his  life  flows  in  a  gentle  current  to 
the  great  Sea  of  Death  ?  I  tell  you,  there  are  canons,  and 
falls,  and  rapids,  and  rocks  for  the  red  man  to  pass  as  well 
as  the  white.  The  serpent  may  come  to  his  house,  and  his 
little  ones  be  strong  ;  the  cougar  may  watch  by  his  path  and 
spring  upon  him  or  his  chickens  ;  the  tempest  may  make  his 
home  desolate,  and  his  camp-fires  may  be  extinguished  for 
ever.  You  look  like  a  good  man.  Sit  upon  that  stool 
and  listen." 

My  friend  was  fascinated  by  the  chief  s  manner  as  well 
as  deeply  interested,  and  he  sat  down  to  listen  to  an  Indian' s 
tale. 

I  have  a  wife  and  children,  and  when  I  look  upon  them 
and  can  forget  all  but  them,  my  heart  is  glad.  They  are 
mine — I  love  them.  But  a  thorn  of  cactus  that  finds  its 
way  into  the  hand,  be  it  ever  so  small,  rankles,  and  festers, 
and  becomes  a  putrid  sore.  The  thorn  is  in  my  heart. 

Nineteen  snows  ago  I  had  a  bright-eyed  little  girl.  She 
was  beautiful  as  the  fawn,  and  active  as  the  antelope.  Her 
merry  laugh  was  like  sparkling  waters,  and  wherever  she 
went,  all  things  seemed  glad.  Shall  I  tell  you  she  lived  in 
my  heart  2  At  last  the  white  men  came  with  their  wives 
and  children.  They  saw  my  wild-flower  and  loved  her. 
Who  could  help  it «  The  Great  Spirit  of  the  Hills  made  her 
to  be  loved.  They  wanted  to  take  her  home,  and  teach  her 
to  be  a  white  woman,  to  be  one  of  their  children,  to  teach 
her  to  make  the  paper  talk,  and  to  have  the  paper  talk  to 
her.  I  knew  white  people  were  wise,  that  they  knew  all 
things  in  the  world,  and  many  things  beyond  the  blue  sky, 
and  I  was  willing  my  girl  should  learn,  and  be  wise,  and 
great,  as  she  was  good.  Seven  snows  had  now  passed  over 
her  head,  when  I  gave  my  consent  that  she  might  go  and 


CALIFORNIA  SCPw\P-BOOK.  623 

live  with  the  white  woman  eight  snows,  and  then  she  should 
come  back  to  my  arms  and  my  heart.  She  went,  and  found 
a  happy  home  with  her  new  friends.  She  was  their  child 
for  the  time,  and  they  loved  her  as  such.  They  taught  her 
all  they  knew,  and  she  was  their  pride  as  well  as  mine.  At 
last  the  eight  snows  came,  and  I  called  for  Mona.  I  would 
have  her  with  me.  But  my  white  friend  said:  "She  has 
more  to  learn ;  leave  her  in  my  care  two  more  snows.  I 
will  send  her  to  San  Francisco,  the  big  city,  where  she  will 
see  many  new  things,  and  be  taught  more  than  we  know 
how  to  teach."  It  was  a  hard  struggle,  but  I  knew  the 
white  people  were  my  friends,  and,  for  Mona's  sake,  I  con 
sented.  The  two  snows  came,  and  Mona  returned  beautiful 
as  a  young  doe.  Oh,  how  my  heart  swelled  with  delight  to 
look  in  her  eyes.  I  could  scarcely  think  it  was  my  child, 
my  own  darling.  And  then  she  knew  so  much.  She  could 
tell  of  things  in  the  blue  sky  that  I  never  heard  of  before. 
She  could  place  the  tall  trees  on  paper  as  if  they  grew  there, 
and  she  could  sing  sweeter  than  the  mocking-bird.  My 
white  friends  would  have  kept  her,  but  I  had  waited  so  long 
I  would  not  consent.  She  was  mine  now,  and  I  would  have 
her  in  my  own  home.  She  came,  and  my  cabin  fire  was  a 
bright  one.  My  bird  still  sang  and  was  happy.  Would 
you  think  of  a  tempest  when  all  was  bright  sunshine  \ 

I  was  a  warrior.  I  had  followed  the  war-path  against  the 
Clackamas,  the  Calapooyas,  and  the  Tillamooks,  and  I  had 
taken  many  slaves.  Among  these  I  had  taken  with  my 
own  hand  a  young  chief  of  the  Calapooya,  an  active  young 
brave  of  twenty- two  snows.  To  do  him  justice,  he  served 
me  well ;  he  was  among  the  first  in  the  hunt,  and  none  sent 
the  canoe  forward  with  stronger  arm  ;  but  he  was  my  slave. 
Only  a  few  moons  had  gone  by  after  Mona's  return,  before 
I  saw  she  was  changed.  She  forgot  her  old  father  and 
mother,  and  often  wandered  away  alone.  Sleep  was  not  in 
her  eyes,  and  her  tongue  had  forgot  its  office.  Was  she 
sick  ?  No.  Was  she  contented  with  her  home  ?  Yes.  Did 
she  want  a  new  dress  ?  No.  Would  she  have  other  food  ? 
No — all  was  good. 

I  feared  she  was  ill,  and  would  have  sent  for  the  white 


624:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

medicine  man.  No,  she  was  well.  One  day  I  was  returning 
from  the  chase,  when  in  a  cluster  of  manzanitas  near  my 
home,  I  saw  her — my  child,  my  Mona,  my  best  beloved 
bird,  in  the  arms  of  my  slave.  Had  the  flre  of  the  clouds 
struck  me  down  !  Had  I  fallen  from  a  huge  ledge  of  rocks  ! 
My  head  turned  round.  I  forgot  that  I  was  on  earth.  All 
came  to  me  then,  and  rage  made  me  blind.  I  drew  my 
bow — I  never  missed  my  aim — death  was  in  my  arrow. 
They  saw  me.  She  threw  her  arms  around  the  slave,  and 
cried,  "  Shoot  him  and  you  kill  me  ;  the  same  arrow  shall 
pass  through  us  both."  I  could  not  kill  her — she  was  my 
child — she  was  strong  in  my  heart ;  but  the  slave — the  slave 
to  steal  my  Mona  !  My  arms  fell  to  my  side.  My  ill-starred, 
my — my,  oh,  my  beloved  one  rushed  to  me,  threw  her  arms 
tightly  around  me,  and  cried,  "Fly,  Omana !  fly;  I  am 
yours  in  life,  I  am  yours  in  death— fly,  Omana,  I'll  meet 
you." 

The  slave  fled,  like  the  coward  he  was,  and  weak  and 
faint  I  was  led  by  my  child  to  my  home.  She  loved  my 
slave — I  talked  to  her  as  I  could.  My  white  friends  talked 
to  her,  and  wept.  They  would  take  her  back  ;  she  should 
live  with  them,  and  be  their  child  again.  She  should  have 
clothes,  and  food,  and  love,  such  as  she  had  had.  Would 
she  come  back  and  make  their  hearts  glad  ?  Without  a  tear 
in  her  eye  she  took  her  white  mother' s  hand,  while  her  eyes 
sparkled  like  the  stars.  "My  white  mother  and  father,  I 
love  }^ou  as  I  love  my  life.  You  have  been  kind  and  good 
to  me  always.  I  have  wanted  nothing  from  you.  And, 
my  dark  father,"  she  continued,  turning  to  me,  "I  am  of 
your  kin ;  I  love  you  as  my  heart  can  love,  but  I  can  not 
go  back.  I  am  an  Indian  in  my  heart — an  Indian  I  was 
born,  an  Indian  I  will  die.  I  can  not  mix  with  the  whites  ; 
their  laws  and  customs  forbid,  and  I  love  the  wild  woods 
and  mountains  better  than  I  love  the  cities  and  towns  of  the 
white  people.  And,  oh,  above  them  all,  I  love  Omana, 
slave  as  he  is, .  better,  ay,  far  better  than  life  ;  and  if  I 
would  live  for  you,  I  will  die  for  him."  AVhat  could  we 
say,  what  could  we  do  ?  She  would  be  a  mother,  and  her 
child's  father  was  my  slave.  Why  did  the  spirit  of  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-EOOK.  625 

burning  mountain  heap  coals  of  fire  upon  my  head  \  I  led 
my  girl  back  to  our  home. 

"And  your  slave,  the  husband  of  your  Mona — what  be 
came  of  him  ?' ' 

' '  Oh  !  oh  !  oh  !  My  braves  had  been  upon  his  trail,  and 
in  a  few  days  word  was  brought  that  the  wretch  had  been 
found  dead,  his  body  suspended  to  the  limb  of  a  tree,  with 
his  flesh  filled  with  burnt  splinters,  and  the  filthy  turkey- 
buzzards  were  having  a  glorious  feast  upon  a  human  body 
—Ugh!" 

6 '  And  your  daughter — ' 

"She  disappeared  the  day  after  the  word  was  brought. 
We  searched  and  searched  for  two  days,  when  at  last  our 
path  led  to  where  the  slave  died.  He  was  no  longer  sus 
pended.  On  the  ground  lay  the  lifeless  form  of  my — my — 
Mona,  and  her  arms  clasped,  in  the  cold  embrace  of  death, 
by  the  bones  of  my  wretched  slave." — A.  DELANO,  "  Old 
Block,"  in  the  Sacramento  Union. 


SIC    VITA. 

BY   TAUGENICHTS. 

Hark ! 

Night ! 
Dark  ! 

Sight ! 
Wife! 
Strife  ! 
Life! 

Cry! 

A  soul 

Is  born. 
Time's  roll 

Will  scorn, 
Will  strive, 
Will  thrive, 
Will  live- 
Death  gone. 
40 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Helpless  one ! 

Mother's  breast 
Lie  upon, 

There  thy  nest. 
Nothing  fear, 
Naught  so  dear ; 

Guard  thy  rest. 


Oh!  lovely  child! 

Exotic  rare  ! 
From  heaven  beguiled 

To  make  earth  fair  ! 
So  pure  within  ! 
So  touched  with  sin  ! 
Thee  heaven  must  win  ! 

Thee  heaven  must  wear. 


See  the  noble  youth — 

Prey  to  impulse  wild, 
Loyal  to  the  truth, 

Often  false.     A  child 
Wanting  steady  hand, 
Wanting  self-command, 
Drifts  toward  sea  or  land — 
Heaven  send  breezes  mild. 


The  steadfast  steps  of  time 
Have  brought  the  manly  soul 

Where,  filled  with  thoughts  sublime, 
He  views  the  nearing  goal. 

He  pants  to  draw  the  sword, 

To  fight  for  truth  and  God. 

"  Thy  servant  help,  O  Lord ! 
Thy  banner  to  unroll." 

And  lo  !  he  boldly  springeth 
Where  fierce  the  battle  rages, 

And  loud  his  war-cry  ringeth, 
As  he  the  foe  engages : 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  627 

"  God's  Truth."     Right  well  he  bore  him. 
But  Error  stood  before  him, 
Though  heaven's  banner  waved  o'er  him — 
And  still  the  contest  wages. 

And  now  meridian  height  is  won  ! 

With  orb-like  splendors  blazes  forth 
God's  noblest  work  beneath  the  sun ! 

Hail !  matchless  habitant  of  earth  ! 
Imperial  mind  !  with  angels  kin  ! 
Seraphic  spirit !  pure  from  sin  ! 
This  fleshy  garb  but  hems  thee  in ! 

Death  is  thy  life !     The  grave  thy  birth  ! 

And  the  shadows  eastward  fly, 

Day  is  dying  in  the  West. 
Down  the  slopes  the  pathways  lie — 

What  the  thoughts  that  fill  his  breast  ? 
"  Man  is  false,  and  error  strong  ; 
Truth  is  slow,  but  swift  the  wrong ; 
Life  is  short,  God's  time  is  long — 

Courage,  soul !  and  do  thy  best." 

False  hues  deceive  no  more, 

But  hope  is  ever  young. 
"  Set  lights  along  the  shore, 

Let  heavenly  strains  be  sung." 
Bright  visions  fill  his  mind, 
Love  grows  for  all  mankind  ; 
'*  Earth's  duties  closer  bind, 

In  heaven  thy  crown  is  hung." 

Mellow  harvest  come ; 

Ripened  now  the  grain  ; 
Bear  it  to  its  home. 

Creaks  the  loaded  wain— 
Noble  sheaf  is  he  ! 
Splendid  sight  to  see  ! 
Life's  maturity ! 

Join  the  heavenly  train. 


628  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Tremble  his  limbs 

Like  pines  'neath  snow ; 

Time's  frost  bedims 
His  vision  now. 

His  race  is  run, 

His  work  is  done; 

Beyond  the  sun 

His  years  shall  flow. 

Marble  face — 
Sweet  repose — 

Not  a  trace 

Of  earthly  woes. 

Lay  the  clod 

'Neath  the  sod ; 

Up  to  God 

The  spirit  goes. 

Sun  shine, 
Buds  blow, 

Creep  vine, 
Grass  grow, 

Sigh  breeze, 

Weep  trees ; 

Birds,  bees 
Chant  low. 

Bell 

Toll, 
Knell 

Roll. 
Born, 
Worn, 
Gone 

Soul. 


S.  F.  Dramatic  Chronicle,  April  2,  1868. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  629 


ARTISTIC   EVIDENCE    OF    A   REMOTE     COLONIZATION     IN    AMERICA     BY    A 
MARITIME  PEOPLE. 

the  late  meeting  of  the  American  Society  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science  at  Chicago,  Dr. 
Gibbons,  of  Charleston,  S.  C.,  read  a  paper 
on  the  artistic  evidences  of  a  remote  coloniza 
tion  on  the  great  Western  or  American  Con 
tinent  by  a  maritime  people  of  distinct  nationalities  before 
the  modern  era ;  of  which  paper  the  following  is  an 
abstract : — 

The  antiquities  of  America  have  attracted  the  attention 
of  Europe  more  than  they  have  those  of  our  own  country 
generally.  The  evidences  of  the  neighboring  State  of  Wis 
consin,  carefully  surveyed  by  Mr.  Lapham,  and  published 
with  the  Smithsonian  collections  in  1853,  strongly  incline 
us  to  believe  that  the  earth  mounds  of  Northern  America 
had  an  existence  anterior  to  the  curious  architectural  struc 
tures  in  Yucatan  or  the  civilization  of  Peru  and  its  neigh 
borhood.  The  red  men  of  America  were  never  charged  to 
have  invented  alphabetic  letters,  yet  at  the  head  of  the 
great  lakes  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  there  are  eleven  such 
characters,  apparently  used  as  numerals,  found  on  head 
lands  of  water-courses,  as  if  to  indicate  distances,  in  Coptic 
and  Etruscan  characters.  Baron  Humboldt  describes  some 
sculptures  on  rocks  near  the  banks  of  the  Oronoco,  which 
he  considered  Punic,  and  among  the  monuments  of  Central 
America,  several  letters  of  the  Grecian  alphabet  are  dis 
tinguishable.  The  profiles  of  faces  exhibited  in  the  hiero 
glyphics  copied  by  Mr.  Catherwood,  indicate  a  variety  of 
nations  from  different  quarters  of  the  earth.  There  are 
aged  men  in  metallic  armor,  wearing  beards  and  arabesque 
ornaments,  that  have  a  Milesian  physiognomy,  while  sea 
men  in  cloth  caps  and  mustache  bear  much  the  air  of  dash 
ing  midshipmen  of  the  present  time. 

There  are  women  wearing  hoods  and  children  carrying 
medals  on  their  breasts,  while  there  are  the  scriptural  forms 
and  countenances  of  priests,  artisans,  and  seamen,  a  little 


630  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

caricatured  according  to  an  Eastern  artistic  practice,  and 
negro  countenances  intermingled  with  those  of  the  abo 
rigines.  There  are  prostrate  figures  in  armor  with  grave 
and  serious  countenances,  having  native  Indians  standing  on 
their  backs  to  show  them  as  their  conquerors.  The  abo 
rigines  have  forced  the  foreign  artist  thus  to  describe  events 
they  were  not  competent  to  in  the  same  style  and  per 
fection. 

The  style  of  the  buildings,  erected  upon  artificial  mounds, 
are  described  to  resemble  those  east  of  the  Euphrates  and 
of  the  island  of  Ceylon.  The  provisions  for  the  preserva 
tion  of  grain  and  ample  supplies  of  water  characterize  the 
habits  of  the  East.  The  mounds  of  Wisconsin  also  display 
the  forms  of  arms  and  weapons  of  an  Eastern  people,  while 
numerous  implements  of  mining  are  also  shown  in  the 
earth-works. 

In  the  collection  of  Dr.  Davis  of  New  York,  who  has 
given  great  attention  to  the  antiquities  of  the  mounds  of 
Ohio,  was  found  a  rock  weight  which  approached  a  half 
pound  avoirdupois,  a  standard  of  antiquity  introduced  by 
the  Syrians  into  Cadiz  of  Spain  eleven  centuries  before  the 
modern  era.  If  this  should  be  confirmed  by  other  stone 
weights  of  the  same  standard,  it  will  open  a  very  curious 
field  for  speculation,  as  these  commercial  weights  are  known 
to  prevail  throughout  the  vast  empire  of  China,  at  Timbuc- 
too,  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  and  were  used  by  the  Cartha 
ginians  and  the  Hebrews,  to  which  last  nation  they  were 
recommended  by  Moses  as  perfect  and  just  weights.  Such 
a  fact  in  the  Hebrew  writing  seems  an  evidence  that  these 
exact  weights  existed  in  his  time.  We  are  inclined  to 
attribute  to  a  maritime  people  of  a  very  early  antiquity  a 
knowledge  of  the  form  and  movements  of  the  earth.  The 
globe  with  wings,  attended  by  a  serpent,  the  emblem  of 
wisdom,  was  a  celebrated  symbol  over  the  Egyptian 
temples — in  oar  opinion  the  result  of  some  prominent 
astronomical  discovery.  Mr.  Stephens  has  described  a 
stoco  ornament  of  this  description  with  the  wings  of  the 
globe  reversed  ;  a  geographical  description  of  the  relative 
positions  of  Egypt  and  Yucatan,  which  are  the  antipodes 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  031 

of  each  other.  As  it  is  only  possible  to  give  a  brief  outline 
of  very  numerous  ancient  arts,  I  will  only  describe  the 
appearance  of  earthen  vases  in  Peru,  apparently  designed 
to  perform  the  functions  of  distillation,  a  simple  art  of 
separating  a  spirit  from  its  combination  employed  by 
the  wild  Tartars  and  the  people  of  Ceylon,  whose  simple 
contrivances  are  described  by  Dr.  Davy.  The  ancient 
nations  were  famous  for  their  pottery  and  other  manufac 
tures,  as  well  as  for  nautical  explorations.  The  resem 
blances  were  strong  between  the  pottery  of  different  por 
tions  of  America  and  those  of  the  ancient  people  of  the 
Mediterranean. 

The  union  of  a  very  small  portion  of  tin  with  copper  tools 
and  arms  is  another  indication  of  early  connection  between 
Asia,  Africa,  and  America,  since  those  exhibited  by  Mr. 
Layard,  from  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  show  the  same  peculiar 
ities.  Egyptians,  East  Indian,  and  Chinese  weapons  are 
also  thus  prepared  to  procure  extreme  hardness  of  temper. 
It  is  not  probable  that  such  art  was  the  result  of  chance, 
since  copper  alloyed  with  tin  is  not  found  native.  The 
earth-mounds  commencing  at  the  head  of  the  great  north 
ern  lakes  attend  the  great  water-courses  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  They  appear  to  have  served  as  places  of  defense 
and  for  trade  ;  contained  altars  for  worship  and  conve 
nience  for  cattle,  like  the  mud  forts  of  India. 


SIR    ROBERT    PEEL'S    PRAYER. 


| 

{HE  Christian  Times  says  the  following  is  a 
copy  of  prayer,  found  in  the  late  Sir  Robert 
Peel's  private  drawer  of  his  dressing-case,  after 
his  sudden  death,  July,  1850:— 

"  Great  and  merciful  God,  ruler  of  all  na 
tions,  help  me  daily  to  repair  to  Thee  for  wis 
dom  and  grace  suitable  to  the  high  office  whereto  Thy 
providence  has  called  me.  Strengthen,  O  Lord,  my  natural 
powers  and  faculties,  that  the  weighty  and  solemn  interests 
with  which  Thy  servant  is  charged  may  not  greatly  suffer 


632  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

through  weakness  of  body  and  confusion  of  mind.  Deign, 
I  beseech  Thee,  to  obviate  or  correct  the  ill  effects  of  such 
omissions  or  mistakes  in  my  proceedings  as  may  result  from 
partial  knowledge,  infirmity  of  judgment,  or  unfaithfulness 
in  any  with  whom  I  have  to  do.  Let  Thy  blessing  rest 
upon  my  sovereign  and  my  country.  Dispose  the  hearts 
of  all  in  high  stations  to  adopt  such  measures  as  will  pre 
serve  public  order,  foster  industry,  and  alleviate  distress. 
May  their  religion  flourish,  and  peace  be  universal.  Grant 
that,  so  far  as  may  consist  with  human  weakness,  whatever 
is  proposed  by  myself  or  others  for  the  general  good  may 
be  viewed  with  candor,  and  that  all  wise  and  useful  measures 
may  be  conducted  to  a  prosperous  issue.  As  for  me,  Thy 
servant,  grant,  O  merciful  God,  that  I  may  not  be  so  en 
grossed  with  public  anxieties  as  that  Thy  word  should 
become  unfruitful  to  me,  or  be  so  moved  by  difficulty  or 
opposition  as  not  to  pursue  the  narrow  way  that  leadeth  me 
to  life.  And,  O  most  gracious  Father,  if,  notwithstanding 
my  present  desires  and  purposes,  I  should  forget  Thee,  do 
not  Thou  forget  me,  seeing  that  I  entreat  Thy  constant 
remembrance  and  favor  only  for  the  sake  of  our  most  blessed 
Advocate  and  Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  with  Thee 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  be  glory  forever.  Amen." 


THE    LATE    PROFESSOR    FARADAY    OX    SPIRITUALISM. 


following  letter  from  the  late  Professor  Far 
aday  has  been  furnished  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette 
by  John  Tyndall.  The  letter  was  addressed 
to  Sir  Emerson  Tennent  in  response  to  an 
invitation  from  that  gentleman  to  personally 
investigate  the  phenomena  reported  to  have 
occurred  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Home ;  and  Mr.  Tyndall, 
in  publishing  the  letter,  says  he  will  hold  himself  in  readi 
ness  to  witness  and  investigate  such  phenomena  as  Mr. 
Home  may  wish  to  reveal  to  him  during  the  month  of 
June : — 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  633 

FOLKESTONE,  June  14,  1861. 

MY  BEAK  SIR  EMERSON  :— I  can  not  help  feeling  that  you 
are  indiscreet  in  your  desire  to  bring  me  into  contact  with 
the  occult  phenomena  which  it  is  said  are  made  manifest  in 
Mr.  Home' s  presence.  I  have  investigated  such  in  former 
times,  during  some  years,  and  as  much  as  I  thought  con 
sistent  with  the  self-respect  that  an  experimental  philosopher 
owes  to  himself.  It  would  be  a  condescension  on  my  part 
to  pay  any  more  attention  to  them  noAV  ;  and  I  can  only  do 
so  under  the  persuasion  that  all  concerned  wish  to  have 
the  phenomena  unraveled  and  understood,  and  will  do  all 
they  can  to  aid  in  such  a  result.  To  settle  whether  I  can  go 
or  not,  I  wish  to  put  to  you  the  following  points  : — 

1.  Who  wishes  me  to  go  1   to  whose  house  \   for  what 
purpose  ? 

2.  Does  Mr.  Home  wish  me  to  go  ? 

3.  Is  he  willing  to  investigate  as  a  philosopher,  and  as 
such  to  have  no  concealments,  no  darkness,  to  be  open  in 
communication,  and  to  aid  inquiry  all  that  he  can  ? 

4.  Does  he  make  himself  responsible  for  the  effects,  and 
identify  himself  more  or  less  with,  their  cause  \ 

5.  Would  he  be  glad  if  their  delusive   character  were 
established  and  exposed,  and  would  he  gladly  help  to  ex 
pose  it,  or  would  he  be  annoyed  and  personally  offended  ? 

6.  Does  he  consider  the  effects  natural  or  supernatural  \ 
If  natural,  what  are  the  laws  which  govern  them  ?  or  does 
he  think  they  are  not  subject  to  laws  \     If  supernatural, 
does  he  suppose  them  to  be  miracles  or  the  works  of  spirits  \ 
If  the  work  of  spirits,  would  an  insult  to  the  spirits  be  con 
sidered  as  an  insult  to  himself  ? 

7.  If  the  effects  are  miracles,  or  the  work  of  spirits,  does 
he  admit  the  utterly  contemptible  character,  both  of  them 
and  their  results,  up  to  the  present  time,  in  respect  either 
of  yielding  information  or  instruction,   or  supplying  any 
force  or  action  of  the  least  value  to  mankind  ? 

8.  If  they  be  natural  effects  without  natural  law,  can  they 
be  of  any  use  or  value  to  mankind  ? 

9.  If  they  be  the  glimpses  of  natural  action  not  yet  re- 


634  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK 

duced  to  law,  ought  it  not  to  be  the  duty  of  every  one  who 
has  the  least  influence  in  such  actions  personally  to  develop 
them,  and  aid  others  in  their  development  by  the  applica 
tion  of  every  critical  method,  either  mental  or  experimental, 
which  the  mind  of  man  can  devise  ? 

I  do  not  wish  to  give  offense  to  any  one,  or  meddle  with 
this  subject  again.  I  lost  much  time  about  it  formerly,  in 
hopes  of  developing  some  new  force  or  power,  but  found 
nothing  worthy  of  attention.  I  can  only  look  at  it  now  as  a 
natural  philosopher ;  and,  because  of  the  respect  due  to 
myself,  will  not  enter  upon  any  further  attention  or  investi 
gation,  unless  those  who  profess  to  have  a  hold  upon  the 
effects  agree  to  aid  to  the  uttermost.  To  this  purpose  they 
must  consent  (and  desire)  to  be  as  critical  upon  the  matter 
and  full  of  test  investigation  in  regard  to  the  subject  as  any 
natural  philosopher  is  in  respect  of  the  germs  of  his  dis 
coveries.  How  could  electricity,  that  universal  spirit  of 
matter,  ever  have  been  developed  in  its  relations  to  chemi 
cal  action,  to  magnetic  action,  to  its  application  in  the  ex 
plosion  of  mines,  the  weaving  of  silk,  the  extension  of  print 
ing,  the  electro-telegraph,  the  illumination  of  light-houses, 
&c.,  except  by  rigid  investigation,  grounded  on  the  strict 
est  critical  reasoning  and  the  most  exact  and  open  experi 
ment  ?  And  if  these  so-called  occult  manifestations  are  not 
utterly  worthless,  they  must  and  will  pass  through  a  like 
ordeal. 

As  I  do  not  want  to  debate  this  matter  with  those  who 
have  already  made  up  their  minds  in  a  direction  contrary 
to  my  own,  .but  (if  I  see  sufficient  reason)  only  to  work  it 
out  with  such  a  desire  to  find  incontrovertible  proofs,  inde 
pendent  of  opinion  or  assertion,  so  I  wish  you  would  show 
this  letter  to  Mr.  Home,  and  those  who  want  me  to  meet 
him  and  them  on  his  ground  ;  after  which  you  will  know 
whether  you  should  persevere  in  asking  me.  You  will  un 
derstand  that  I  decline  to  meet  any  whose  minds  are  not  at 
liberty  to  investigate  according  to  the  general  principles  I 
have  here  expressed. 

Further,  I  claim  the  right  of  publishing  the  whole  or  any 
part  of  this  letter,  or  any  future  written  communication 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  635 

that  may  arise  out  of  it,  in  any  manner  that  I  may  think 
fit  Ever,  my  dear  Sir  Emerson, 

Your  very  faithful  servant, 

M.  FARADAY. 

You  will  see  that  I  consent  to  all  this  with  much  reserve, 
and  only  for  your  sake.  M.  F. 


SANTA    MARGARITA. 


"  I  HAVE  wandered  over  many  a  bright  and  beautiful  land, 
but  never,  even  in  the  glorious  East,  in  Italy,  Spain,  Switz 
erland,  or  South  America,  have  I  seen  a  country  so  richly 
favored  by  nature  as  California,  and  never  a  more  lovely 
valley  than  the  Santa  Margarita  upon  the  whole  wide  world. 

"J.  Ross  BROWNE." 

BRIGHT  Valley  of  Beauty  !  in  dreams  I  behold  thee, 

As  fair  as  the  first  time  I  looked  on  thy  face, 
In  the  glow  of  the  warm  summer  smiles  that  enfold  thee, 

In  the  peace  and  the  rest  of  thy  mild  tranquil  grace. 

I  hear  in  my  fancy  thy  rivulets  ripple, 

And  the  winds'  solemn  dirge  in  thy  pines'  tasseled  boughs; 
I  see  o'er  thy  greenwoods  the  sunbeams  that  glisten, 

And  thy  dark  mountain  heights  with  their  cypress-crowned  brows. 

I  see,  through  the  veil  of  the  mist  that  hangs  o'er  them, 
The  thickets  they  weave  of  their  wild  vines  and  sage  ; 

And  the  low  dimpled  hills  that  are  smiling  before  them, 
Like  childhood  reclined  in  the  lap  of  old  age. 

When  the  chimes  of  the  spring-day  rang  out  through  thy  windings, 

I  looked  on  thy  scenes  for  the  first  and  the  last ; 
But  my  thoughts  are  so  fraught  with  the  spell  of  thy  beauty, 

I  scarcely  can  deem  that  the  vision  is  past. 

The  breezes  that  swept  from  thy  mountains  were  laden 
With  the  perfume  they  wooed  from  the  blossoming  bay, 

Or  fragrant  and  fresh  as  the  breath  of  the  morning, 

From  the  pine-trees  that  swayed  to  their  wild,  careless  play. 


636  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Though  the  wild  oats  o'er  valley  and  hill-side  are  golden, 
I  think  of  thee  but  in  thy  spring's  early  hours ; 

When  the  emerald  waves  of  thy  soft  undulations 
Were  bright  with  the  glow  of  their  tropical  flowers ; 

When  the  trees  that  o'ershadowed  the  quiet  Salinas 
Gleamed  out  from  the  mists  of  the  dark  eastern  hills ; 

When  the  sunlight  went  by  in  its  rich  Avavy  splendor, 
And  the  air  was  alive  with  the  lark's  gushing  trills. 

Perchance  they  may  deem  thee  "  too  present  and  real," 
Whose  fancies  can  prize  but  the  distant  and  dim ; 

Whose  dreamings  are  all  of  the  Old  World's  ideal, 
And  the  hallowed  refrain  of  its  time-honored  hymn. 

But  one  who  has  stood  in  the  glow  of  the  Orient, 

Where  the  gleams  of  the  sunlight  are  nursed  into  birth, 

Who  has  rifled  the  climes  from  the  poles  to  the  tropics, 
Has  called  thee  as  fair  as  the  fairest  on  earth. 

With  an  ear  trained  to  Nature's  sweet  musical  echoes, 

With  an  eye  that  can  read  all  its  lights  and  its  shades, 
He  has  heard  the  deep  voice  of  thy  low  twilight  murmurs 
From  the  rich,  blended  hues  of  thy  woodlands  and  glades. 

ANNIE  A.  FITZGERALD, 
in  S.  F.  democratic  Press. 


LINES  SUGGESTED  BY  READING  MARK  TWAIN's  LETTERS  FROM 
PALLISTYNE. 


BY    JOB    SIIAE,    POET   LARRYAT    TJV    GOAT    ISLAND. 


HERE'S  a  man  that  looks  at  things  without  speks ; 

He  looks  thru  his  own  ize,  he  sees  what  is  vizib'e ; 

But  his  ize  is  uv  the  earth,  earthly ; 

They  never  rolled  in  a  fine  frenzy  like  a  poet's, 

For  they  have  no  spiritool  vishun. 

There  is  no  nonsense  about  this  man  ;  he  is  wide  awake ; 

You  can't  fool  him  with  your  old-time  stories. 

He's  a  Californian  uv  Californians,  and  a  Yankee  uv  Yankees ; 

As  cute  as  a  clock  peddler,  as  bright  as  a,  noo  dollar. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  637 

He  is  funnyer  than  the  clown  in  the  cirkus, 

And  can  be  comikle  without  burnt  cork. 

He  perambulated  Pallistyne  as  he  would  a   cattle  ranch  in   San 

Bernardino  ; 
He  sot  down  and  cut  his  korns  under  the  coders  uv  Lebanun, 

And  said,  "  These  is  no  trees  to  brag  on  ; 

"  There  is  shugger  pine  in  the  foot-hills  that's  bigger  ; 

"  And  for  timber,  what  are  they  to  redwood  !" 

He  visited  the  garden  of  Gethseminy, 

And  thor't  it  wasn't  fit  for  a  cow-pastyer  ; 

It  was  mighty  poor  grazin'  ground, 

And  wouldn't  grow  no  potatose  ; 

He  rode  thru  the  Valley  uv  Jehoshafat, 

And  heerd  the  roarin'  uv  the  Bulls  of  Bashun, 

And  he  sed  to  'em,  "  Dry  up,  you  old  humbugs  ; 

"How  quick  a  few  Greasers  with  lassoos 

"  Would  stop  all  that  snortin'  and  bellerin'  ; 

"  But  I  don't  'spect  you'd  pay  the  expense  of  slorterin'. 

"  You  look  tuifer  than  Mexican  bull-beef, 

"  And  wouldn't  bring  two  cents  a  pound  in  San  Francisco." 

This  yer  man  has  a  sharp  percepshun  ; 

What  he  sees  he  sees  clear  —  he  sees  to  the  bottum  uv  it  ; 

He's  as  keen  as  a  brier  ;  but  there's  things  he  can't  see  at  all. 

He's  as  blind  as  a  bat  and  as  deef  as  an  adder  ; 

He  sayl'd  over  the  oshun,  and  it  sung  him  no  song  ; 

Sunset  and  moonlite  stars  and  clouds  had  no  messige  for  him; 

He  walked  the  streets  uv  Jeroosalem  ;  he  stood  by  the  sea  uv  Gallylee; 

He  passed  over  Jardon  ;  he  camped  on  the  Mount  uv  Olives  ; 

And  the  things  that  he  seen,  and  that  he  thort,  and  that  he  felt, 

Were  the  things  a  Digger  Injun  uv  ordnery  smartness 

Mite  hev  seen,  and  thort,  ef  he'd  gone  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Jeroosalem. 

[Note  by  the  Orthur.  Ef  these  lines  air  sum  uv  '  em  a  little 
irreguler  in  length,  and  jolty  in  meter,  it's  en  consekens  of 
the  joltin'  uv  the  kars,  the  pome  having  been  writ  on  the 
train  from  the  Point  connectin'  with  the  5:15  bote.  —  J.  S., 
P.  G.  L] 

J.  F.  BOWMAN, 
in  Oakland  News,  April,  1863. 


OF 


638  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 


THE   CRICKET. 

THE  cricket  is  a  curious  little  insect.  It  has  given  rise 
to  two  proverbial  expressions.  In  France,  people  say  : 
"  silly  as  a  cricket,"  while  in  England  and  America  we 
say,  u  merry  as  a  cricket."  Crickets  eat  grass,  seeds,  and 
fruits,  conveying  them  to  their  holes,  and  though  they 
are  very  fond  of  drinking  the  dew  on  leaves  and  flowers, 
they  are  very  careful  not  to  wet  themselves  on  their  journeys 
in  search  of  food.  The  young  live  in  peace,  but  when  they 
grow  up  they  manifest  a  most  belligerous  disposition,  and 
are  continually  lighting  with  one  another.  The  boys  in 
Germany  are  very  fond  of  keeping  crickets  in  boxes  for  the 
sake  of  their  song,  and  for  the  purpose  of  watching  their 
battles.  What  the  game  cock  is  to  the  Cuban,  and  the  bull 
dog  to  the  Englishman,  the  cricket  is  to  the  German  youth. 
Their  contests  are  very  sharp  and  very  amusing.  Accord 
ing  to  the  way  in  which  they  happen  to  meet,  they  butt  like 
rams,  kick  like  horses,  or  scratch  like  cats,  and  the  contest  is 
unceasing  in  its  ferocity,  until  one  of  the  insects  flees  from 
the  field  or  is  disabled.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the 
European  house  cricket  is  not  known  in  our  country.  Its 
song  is  much  more  varied  and  much  cheerier  than  that  of 
the  species  which  sometimes  finds  its  way  into  our  hearths. 


LINES    ON   AN   AUTOPSICAL    EXAMINATION. 

WRAPT  in  the  stony  sleep  of  death, 
Rigid  and  wan,  the  subject  lay ; 

No  sob  revealed  the  vanished  breath 
Of  life  that  warmed  the  senseless  clay. 

Flared  o'er  the  blank,  impassive  face, 
The  dim,  uncertain  light  I  bore 

In  nickering  shadows,  till  the  space 

Seemed  peopled  from  the  Stygian  shore. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  639 

I  bent  above  the  naked  breast, 

Guiding  the  scalpel's  glittering  way — 
Saw  the  stilled  heart  that,  once  at  rest, 

Shall  throb  no  more  to  passion's  sway. 

No  more  shall  gladness  make  its  tone, 

Or  pride,  or  grief,  assert  their  power, 
Indignant  sorrow  claim  her  own, 

Or  hope  beguile  its  darkest  hour. 

Oh,  that  the  enfranchised  spirit  might 

Return  to  its  forsaken  frame, 
That  I  might  be  resolved  aright, 

If  Death  is  awful  but  in  name — 

If,  when  the  lamp  of  life  burns  low, 

And  slowly  ebbs  the  vital  tide, 
ITS  faintly  heard  the  murmuring  flow 

Of  waves  on  Lethe's  gloomy  side — 

Or  if,  before  the  pulse  stands  still, 

Pass  all  the  entities  away, 
Is  death  a  mere  mechanic  thrill — 

Its  chill,  the  morning  dew  of  day? 

Oh,  what  is  heaven  ?   departed,  tell ! 

Illimitable — endless — vast — 
Does  not  the  vicinage  of  hell 

Alloy  the  present  or  the  past  ? 

Say,  traveler  to  the  "  unknown  shore," 

Whose  path  no  human  eye  may  trace, 
If  thou  canst  hear  the  ceaseless  roar 

Of  men  beneath  thy  dwelling  place  ?  , 

Awake,  impassive,  and  bewept ! 

Declare  what  codes  of  thought  are  true 
Or  is  that  mighty  secret  kept 

Still  hidden  in  that  vault  of  blue  ? 

Do  they  who  in  this  life  have  striven 

Truly  and  well  in  Wisdom's  train, 
In  death,  with  sight  divinely  given, 

Behold  Truth's  hallowed,  whole  domain  ? 


640  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

May  one  who  lived  throughout  this  life 
A  vassal,  or  the  sceptered  dead, 

Released  at  length  from  mortal  strife, 
Like  Dante  walk,  by  Virgil  led  ? 

Will  those  whose  unassisted  thought 
Forestalled  almost  our  later  day, 

Titans  of  mind,  with  wisdom  fraught, 
Lead  the  fond  tyro  toward  the  day  ? 

Peace,  futile  dreamer,  Reason  cries, 
Have  done  with  speculations  vain  ; 

What  he  is  soon  thyself  shall  be, 
What  boots  this  esoteric  strain  ? 

Thus  mused  I,  wrestling  to  retrieve 

A  creed  from  death — from  doubt  relief: 

I  waver,  pause,  and  half  believe — 
"  Help  thou,  O  Lord,  my  unbelief." 


SALATIA. 


O  SEA  !     O  Mighty  Sea ! 
Chorusing  eternally 

Unto  the  shore; 
Chanting  in  mystic  strain 
Of  tempest,  storm,  and  rain, 

Forevermore ! 

O  Sea  !     O  Fearless  Sea ! 
Dashing  upon  the  cliffs, 

Smiting  the  rocks; 
Drench  me  with  your  delight, 
Come  in  your  haughty  might, 

I  woo  your  shocks  ! 

O  Sea  !     O  Lion  Sea ! 
Grasping  your  shining  mane 

I  spurn  control; 
And  more  and  more  I  feel, 
Hearing  your  thunders  peal, 

Freedom  of  soul ! 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  641 

O  Sea  !     O  Savage  Sea ! 

My  heart  takes  stronger  throb 

Breathing  your  name ; 
Off  life's  worn  sense  I  strip, 
And  back  to  Nature  slip 

A  child  untame  ! 

W.  A.  KENDALL, 
in  California  Weekly  Mercury,  May  10,  1868. 


JOB    A    PRINTER. 


AT  a  printer's  festival  in  Minnesota  some  years  ago, 
Judge  Goodrich  made  a  speech,  in  which  he  referred  the 
invention  of  printing  to  a  higher  antiquity  than  is  usually 
ascribed  to  it.  He  undertook  to  prove  that  the  patriarch 
Job  knew  all  about  it,  by  quoting  from  him  the  following 
passage:  "Oh,  that  my  words  were  now  written!  Oh, 
that  they  were  printed  in  a  book,  that  they  were  graven 
with  an  iron  pen,  with  lead  in  a  rock  forever  !' '  The  Judge 
considered  this  undoubted  evidence  that  Job  understood 
the  arts  of  writing,  printing,  engraving,  stereotyping,  and 
lithographing.  He  mentioned  them  in  their  regular  order, 
as  they  have  been  discovered. 


THE    USES    OF    MOUNTAINS. 

R,  RUSKIN  notes  it  as  one  of  the  most  prominent 
uses  of  mountains,  that  they  cause  perpetual 
changes  in  the  soil  of  the  earth.  The  physical 
geographers  assure  us  that  if  the  whole  matter 
of  the  Alps  were  shoveled  out  over  Europe,  the 
level  of  the  continent  would  be  raised  about 
twenty  feet,  and  this  process  of  leveling  is  continually  going 
on.  By  a  calculation  which  he  made  in  the  valley  of  Cha- 
mouni,  Mr.  Ruskin  believes  that  one  of  the  insignificant 
rivulets,  only  four  inches  deep,  carries  from  Mount  Blanc 

41 


642  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

eighty  tons  of  granite  dust  a  year,  at  which  rate  of  theft  at 
least  eighty  thousand  tons  of  the  substance  of  that  mountain 
mast  "be  yearly  transformed  into  drift-sand  by  the  streams, 
and  distributed  by  the  streams  below.  On  Whiteface  Moun 
tain  of  the  Sandwich  group,  a  slide  took  place  in  1820, 
which  hurled  down  huge  blocks  of  granite,  sienite,  quartz, 
feldspar,  and  trap  rock,  and  cut  a  deep  ravine  in  the  side 
of  the  mountain  several  miles  in  extent.  But  compensation 
was  made  in  part  for  its  destructive  fury.  An  extensive 
meadow  at  the  base,  which  had  borne  only  wild,  coarse  grass 
es,  was  rendered  more  fertile  by  the  fine  sediment,  here  and 
there  four  or  five  feet  in  depth,  that  was  distributed  upon 
it,  to  compensate  the  wastes  of  the  harvests.  The  hills 
which,  as  compared  with  living  beings,  seem  everlasting, 
are,  in  truth,  as  perishing  as  they.  Its  veins  of  flowing 
fountains  weary  the  mountain  heart,  as  the  crimson  pulse 
does  ours  ;  the  natural  force  of  the  iron  crag  is  abated  in  its 
appointed  time,  like  the  strength  of  the  sinews  in  a  human, 
in  old  age  ;  and  it  is  but  the  lapse  of  the  longer  years  of 
decay  which  in  the  sight  of  its  Creator  distinguishes  the 
mountain  range  from  the  moth  and  the  worm. 


A    MOUNTAIN    YIEW. 

THOU  who  wouldst  see  the  lovely  and  the  wild 

Mingled  in  harmony  on  Nature's  face, 

Ascend  our  Rocky  Mountains.     Let  thy  foot 

Fail  not  with  weariness,  for  on  their  tops 

The  beauty  and  the  majesty  of  earth, 

Spread  wide  beneath,  shall  make  thce  to  forget 

The  steep  and  toilsome  way.     There  as  thou  stand'st, 

The  haunts  of  man  below  thee,  and  around 

The  mountain  summits,  thy  expanding  heart 

Shall  feel  a  kindred  to  that  loftier  world 

To  which  thou  art  translated,  and  partake 

The  enlargement  of  thy  vision.     Thou  shalt  look 

O  J 

Upon  the  green  and  rolling  forest  tops. 
And  down  into  the  s-ecrets  of  the  glens, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  643 

And  streams,  that  with  their  bordering  thickets  strive 
To  hide  their  windings.     Thou  shalt  gaze,  at  once, 
Here  on  white  villages,  and  tilth,  and  herds, 
And  swarming  roads,  and  there  on  solitudes 
That  only  hear  the  torrent,  and  the  wind, 
And  eagle's  shriek. 


CHANGE    IN   THE    CLIMATE    OF    CALIFORNIA. ITS    CAUSES. 

[HAT  there  is  a  gradual  but  certain  change  going 
on  in  the  climate  of  California,  no  person  who 
has  inhabited  the  State  since  1849,  and  paid 
any  attention  to  the  change  of  seasons,  can  for 
a  moment  doubt.  But  the  cause  at  work,  which 
is  silently  but  surely  producing  this  change, 
appears  to  be  a  mystery  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people, 
and  imperfectly  understood  by  the  man  of  science,  as  well 
as  the  learned  savan.  It  is  a  well-established  principle  in 
the  science  of  meteorology,  that  rain  is  produced  from 
vapor,  and  that  vapor  is  produced  by  heat. 

The  annual  amount  of  evaporation  from  a  given  surface 
of  water  in  the  interior  of  the  country  is  greater  than  that 
of  the  rain  which  falls  on  the  same  surface,  but  the  amount 
of  evaporation  from  the  surface  of  the  ground  is  generally 
less,  particularly  in  mountainous  districts.  If  the  vapor 
which  is  formed  is  allowed  to  accumulate  over  the  evapor 
ating  surface,  it  will  by  its  reaction  retard  the  free  ascent  of 
the  other  portions  of  vapor  ;  but  if  it  be  constantly  re 
moved  as  fast  as  it  is  formed,  the  process  will  evidently  go 
on  more  rapidly.  Yapor  contains  a  large  amount  of  latent 
heat,  and  water  can  not  be  converted  into  an  aeriform  state 
without  the  supply  of  the  necessary  quality  of  this 
principle.  Hence  the  higher  the  temperature,  or  the  more 
freely  the  evaporating  surface  is  supplied  with  heat,  the 
greater  will  be  the  amount  of  vapor  in  a  given  time. 

It  is  an  historical  fact  that,  before  the  settlement  of  Cal 
ifornia,  by  the  Americans,  rain  was  seldom  if  ever  known 
to  fall  during  the  summer  months ;  and  it  is  stated  by  Lieut. 


644:  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Wilkes,  at  the  time  lie  visited  California,  that  no  rain  had 
fallen  for  thirty- seven  months. 

Since  the  occupation  and  settlement  by  the  Americans, 
two  great  causes  have  been  at  work  to  produce  the  change 
which  is  now  becoming  apparent  to  the  minds  of  all.  The 
first  and  chief  cause  of  change  is  the  introduction  by  the 
Americans,  of  a  general  and  extended  system  of  agricul 
ture  ;  and  the  second  cause  is,  the  cutting  down  the  forests 
of  heavy  timber,  thereby  exposing  a  large  surface  of  earth 
to  the  heat  of  the  sun.  A  general  system  of  agriculture  ex 
poses  a  large  portion  of  the  uncovered  surface  of  the  earth 
to  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun ;  the  earth  then  becomes 
heated,  and  evaporation  goes  on  rapidly,  and  in  addition  to 
the  evaporation  from  the  earth,  the  vapor  carried  in  by  the 
prevailing  west  wind  from  the  sea,  instead  of  being  con 
densed  and  absorbed  by  the  grass-covered  and  cold  but  dry 
earth,  will  then  as  it  passes  over  a  heated  surface  and  comes 
in  contact  with  highly  rarefied  air,  at  once  ascend  to  the 
point  of  condensation,  when  clouds  will  be  formed  and  the 
accumulated  vapor  be  precipitated  to  the  earth  in  form  of 
rain. 

It  has  been,  and  is  now,  the  general  opinion  of  the  great 
mass  of  the  people  here,  and  in  the  Atlantic  States,  that 
California  never  will  be  a  good  agricultural  country  from  a 
want  of  sufficient  rain  during  the  summer  months ;  and  long 
treatises  on  atmospheric  phenomena  have  been  written  and 
published  by  learned  savans  here,  to  prove  the  impossi 
bility  of  a  change  in  the  climate  of  California.  Time  and 
the  operation  of  well  known  and  immutable  natural  laws, 
will  soon  demonstrate  that  California,  from  her  geograph 
ical  position,  with  her  long  line  of  sea-coast  and  prevailing 
sea-breeze,  only  requires  a  general  system  of  agriculture  to 
make  her  the  most  productive  State  of  the  Union,  from  the 
fact  of  her  mild  climate,  attended  as  it  soon  will  be  with 
abundance  of  rain  throughout  the  year. 

The  prediction  is  now  made  that,  if  a  general  system  is 
pursued  for  five  years  more,  at  the  end  of  that  period  of 
time  there  will  be  a  sufficient  amount  of  rain  to  bring  to 
perfection  and  mature  all  the  grains,  vegetables  and  fruits, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  615 

that  are  now  grown  in  any  part  of  the  world.  And  the 
time  will  come  when  the  citizens  of  California  will  have  as 
much  cause  to  complain  of  too  much  rain  as  those  who  are 
now  here,  have  of  too  little  rain. — Placermlle  Mountain 
Democrat,  July,  1860. 

A    BRIEF    HISTORY,    IN   THREE    PARTS,    WITH    A    SEQUEL. 

Part  I. — Love. 

A  GLANCE — a  thought — a  blow — 

It  stings  him  to  the  core. 
A  question — will  it  lay  him  low  ? 

Or  will  time  heal  it  o'er  ? 

He  kindles  at  the  name — 

He  sits  and  thinks  apart ; 
Time  blows  and  blows  it  to  a  flame 

Burning  within  his  heart. 

He  loves  it  though  it  burns, 

And  nurses  it  with  care  ; 
He  feels  the  blissful  pain  by  turns 

With  hope  and  with  despair. 

Part  II. —  Courtship. 

Sonnets  and  serenades, 

Sighs,  glances,  tears  and  vows, 
Gifts,  tokens,  souvenirs,  parades, 

And  courtesies  and  bows. 

A  purpose  and  a  prayer ; 

The  stars  are  in  the  sky — 
He  wonders  how  e'en  Hope  should  dare 

To  let  him  aim  so  high ! 

Still  Hope  allures  and  flatters, 

And  Doubt  just  makes  him  bold; 
And  so,  with  passion  all  in  tatters, 

The  trembling  tale  is  told. 


643  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Apologies  and  blushes, 

Soft  looks,  averted  eyes, 
Each  heart  into  the  other  rushes, 

Each  yields  and  wins  a  prize. 

Part  III. — Marriage. 

A  gathering  of  fond  friends, 

Brief,  solemn  words,  and  prayer — 

A  trembling  to  the  fingers'  ends, 
As  hand  in  hand  they  swear. 

Sweet  cake,  sweet  wine,  sweet  kisses, 

And  so  the  deed  is  done ; 
Now  for  life's  woes'  and  blisses 

The  wedded  two  are  one. 

I  And  down  the  shining  stream 

They  launch  their  buoyant  skiff, 
Bless'd,  if  they  may  but  trust  Hope's  dream, 
But  ah!  Truth  echoes  "if!" 

The  Sequel— "If.  " 

If  health  be  firm — if  friends  be  true — 

If  self  be  well  controlled — 
If  tastes  be  pure — if  wants  be  few, 

And  not  too  often  told — 

If  reason  always  rules  the  heart — 

If  passion  own  its  sway — 
If  love,  for  aye,  to  life  imparts 
The  zest  it  does  to-day — 

If  Providence,  with  parent  care, 

Mete  out  the  varying  lot — 
While  meek  contentment  bows  to  share 

The  palace  or  the  cot — 

And,  oh  !  if  faith,  sublime  and  clear, 

The  spirit  upward  guide — 
Then  blessed,  indeed,  and  blessed  fore'er, 

The  bridegroom  and  the  bride. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  *      647 


PRE-HISTORIC    REMAINS    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI    VALLEY. 


DE  HAAS,  writes  to  the  St.  Louis  Democrat : 
The  mounds  on  the  American  bottom,  in  Illi 
nois,  are  comprised  in  two  separate  groups, 
constituting  one  grand  and  imposing  system. 
They  number  nearly  two  hundred,  including 
those  on  the  adjacent  bluff.  They  are  of  vari 
ous  sizes  and  shapes,  rising  from  the  scarcely  distinguisha 
ble  elevation  to  the  imposing  structure  of  over  ninety  feet. 
They  are  conical,  ellipsoidal,  truncated,  square,  and  tetrag 
onal.  They  are  entirely  of  earth,  and  raised  with  as  much 
regularity  and  symmetry  as  a  potter  would  mold  a  model  in 
clay.  '  They  have  all  been  formed  from  material  taken  from 
the  adjacent  plain  or  bluff— a  vegetable  mold,  clay,  and  soil, 
and  present  a  marked  mottled  appearance,  identical  with 
the  mounds  in  the  Ohio  valley.  Every  mound  has  been 
elevated  by  human  labor,  and  he  who  denies  this  self-evi 
dent  fact  simply  acknowledges  himself  ignorant  of  the  sub 
ject.  The  evidence,  externally  and  internally,  position, 
structure,  character,  and  contents,  clearly,  positively,  and 
unmistakably  prove  this. 

The  tumuli  under  consideration  were  probably  all  erected 
by  the  same  people.  We  can  not  here,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
ancient  Britons,  determine  from  the  character  of  the  mounds 
the  type  of  race  they  cover.  There,  the  long,  or  elliptical 
barrow  contains  the  long  or  dolichocephalic  head  ;  and  per 
contra,  the  round  or  conical  barrow  contains  the  round  or 
'bracliyceplialic  head.  Here,  we  have  the  long  and  round 
mounds,  but  not  human  crania  of  corresponding  type  con 
fined  to  those  forms.  We  have  here  the  semi-prognathus 
and  pyramidal  heads,  but  not  confined  to  any  particular 
form  of  mounds. 

The  fictilia  from  these  western  mounds  consists  of  distinct 
qualities.  One  is  fine,  compact,  case-grained,  kiln-burned, 
painted,  and  tastefully  ornamented,  molded  for  a  breccia 
composed  of  clay,  and  proved  much  skill.  The  other  is 


648  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

coarse,  rude,  of  irregular  thickness,  sun-dried,  ornamenta- 
tive  without  taste,  and  composed  of  clay  and  small  rhom- 
boidal  fragments  of  white  epathic  carbonate  of  lime,  and 
some  of  simple  clay.  Some  of  the  finer  quality  occasionally 
shows  a  polishing  or  glazing,  leaving  minute  striae,  as  if  done 
with  a  tuft  of  grass  dipped  into  a  barbotte. 

In  making  some  excavations  on  the  plain,  a  short  distance 
west  of  the  large  mound,  I  discovered  large  quantities  of  pot 
tery  in  connection  with  human  remains.  Some  of  them  were 
rude  and  quite  heavy.  One  was  clearly  a  cinerary  urn. 

The  implements,  ornaments,  and  weapons  in  stone,  indi 
cate  two  classes — one  representing  the  palacotetJiic,  or  un 
dressed  stone  age  ;  the  other  the  neolithic,  or  polished  stone 
age,  of  Sir  John  Lubbock.  Some  of  the  specimens  of  the 
finer  quality  are  of  exquisite  skill  and  workmanship.  They 
are  of  porphyry,  hornblende,  granite,  serpentine,  nephrite, 
and  the  hardest  varieties  of  amphabolic  rock. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  classes  is  agricultural.  They 
are  unlike  any  implements  or  utensils  in  store,  found  in 
the  Ohio  valley,  or  any  other  part  of  the  country.  They 
were  undoubtedly  used  in  tilling  the  soil.  One  represents 
the  modern  hoe,  and  our  domestic  implement  is  but  little  im 
provement  on  that  of  the  mound  builders.  A  specimen  before 
roe  is  of  limpir  quartz,  of  faultless  workmanship.  Their 
smaller  quartz  weapons  are  very  fine  ;  ranging  from  the  com 
mon  hornstone  up  through  all  the  varieties  to  the  present 
chalcedony.  The  celts  or  axes  represent  an  extensive  class, 
and  are  of  almost  every  style  and  finish.  Some  are  very  large, 
weighing  over  ten  pounds.  A  granitic  implement  far  sur 
passes  these  in  size,  some  weighing  over  twenty-five  pounds. 
.The  use  of  this  was  probably  to  dress  hides  or  crush  corn. 
Their  mortars  and  pestles  have  been  recovered,  and  their 
pipes,  discs,  and  porphyritic  rings  for  games. 

The  household  goods — lares  and  penales  of  a  people  for 
ever  lost — are  among  the  contents  of  mounds  added  to  the 
fine  collection  of  early  art  which  I  have  made  in  this  inter 
esting  region. 

The  ornaments  with  which  they  decorated  their  persons, 
the  weapons  with  which  they  fought,  the  implements  with 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  G49 

which  they  slew  their  game,  and  the  vessels  with  which 
their  domestic  board  was  served  with  viands,  have  all  been 
recovered,  with  a  large  number  of  miscellaneous  articles  in 
stone,  which  constitute,  with  those  from  other  antiquarian 
localities,  one  of  the  most  extensive  and  valuable  collections 
of  early  American  art  yet  made. 

One  object  sought  in  these  researches  is  to  make  a  full 
collection  of  ancient  art,  representing  the  archaeology  of  the 
northern  division  of  the  western  continent. 


IN   VACATION. 


THE  sun  has  marked  me  for  his  own ; 

I'm  growing  browner  clay  by  day ; 
I  can  not  leave  the  fields  alone ; 

I  bring  their  breath  away. 

I  put  aside  the  forms  of  men, 

And  shun  the  world's  consuming  care. 
Come,  green  and  honest  hills  again ! 

For  ye  are  free  and  fair. 

How  wonderful  this  pilgrimage  ! 

On  every  side  new  worlds  appear. 
I  weigh  the  wisdom  of  the  sage, 

And  find  it  wanting  here. 

I  crave  the  tongues  that  Adam  knew, 
To  question  and  discourse  with  these, — 

To  taunt  the  jay  with  jacket  blue, 
And  quarrel  with  the  bees. 

To  answer  when  the  grossbeak  calls 

His  mate ;  to  mock  the  catbird's  screech ; 

The  sloven  crow's,  with  nasal  drawls, 
The  oriole's  golden  speech. 

Now  through  the  pasture,  and  across 
The  brook,  while  flocks  of  sparrows  try 

To  quit  the  world,  and  wildly  toss 
Their  forms  against  the  sky. 


650  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

A  small  owl  from  the  thistle-tops 

Makes  eyes  at  me,  with  blank  distrust, 

Tips  off  upon  the  air,  and  drops, 
Flat-footed  in  the  dust. 

The  meadow-lark  lifts  shoulder-high 

Above  the  sward,  and,  quivering 
With  broken  notes  of  ecstasy, 

Slants  forth  on  curved  wing. 

The  patient  barn-fowls  strut  about, 

Intent  on  nothing  every  one. 
A  tall  cock  hails  a  cock  without, 
'   A  grave  hen  eyes  the  sun. 

The  gobbler  swells  his  shaggy  coat 

Portentous  of  a  conquest  sure  ; 
His  houris  pipe  their  treble  note, 

Round-shouldered  and  demure. 

The  clear-eyed  cattle  calmly  stop 
To  munch  the  dry  husk  in  the  rack ; 

Or  stretch  their  solid  necks,  and  crop 
The  fringes  of  the  stack. 

But  night  is  coming,  as  I  think ; 

The  moving  air  is  growing  cool ; 
I  hear  the  hoarse  frog's  hollow  chink 

Around  the  weedy  pool. 

The  sun  is  down,  the  clouds  are  gray, 
The  cricket  lifts  his  trembling  voice. 
Come  back  again,  O  happy  day, 
And  bid  my  heart  rejoice  ! 

CHARLES  WARREN  STODDARD. 
in  Atlantic  Monthly,  September,  1868. 


THE    CLIMATE    OF    CALIFORNIA. 

THERE  is  a  city  in  South  America— Bogota,  the  capital  of 
New  Granada — where  the  temperature  varies  all  the  year 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  651 

round  only  about  two  degrees  from  68  degrees ;  but,  in 
sight  of  Bogota,  in  the  valley  of  the  Magdalena,  the  climate 
is  always  tropical  and  oppressive.  We  read  of  this  and 
wonder  ;  and  yet  there  is  a  Bogota  in  every  mountain  county 
of  California,  from  which,  to  the  fierce  temperature  of  the 
foot-hills,  the  distance  in  a  straight  line  is  not  more  than 
twenty  miles.  To-day  the  thermometer  will  mark  105 
degrees  at  Murphy' s,  in  Calaveras ;  at  the  Big  Trees,  not 
more  than  ten  miles  in  a  direct  line  from  Murphy's,  the 
mercury  will  not  rise  above  78  degrees.  The  altitude  of 
Murphy's  is  about  2,000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea  ;  of 
the  Big  Trees,  4,500.  It  is  the  2,500  feet  of  difference  in 
altitude  that  causes  the  difference  in  climate.  There  are 
cozy  little  valleys  nestled  amid  hills  where  the  pale-green 
maple,  the  dark-green  alder,  the  slender  hazel,  the  broad- 
leafed  black-oak,  and  the  tall  and  singing  pine,  all  meet 
and  dwell  together  in  harmony,  and  where  we  think  the 
climate  of  Adam' s  Eden  must  be  nearly  realized.  There  are 
valleys,  not  more  than  twenty  miles  east  of  the  line  of  the 
Big  Trees,  where  a  winter  climate  is  perpetual. — Stockton 
Independent. 


TO    THE    LOADSTONE    OF    MY    LIFE. 
BY   A   TELEGRAPHER. 

MY  dearest  love,  when  last  you  paid 

That  telegraphic  bill, 
The  touch  of  thy  soft  hand  gave  me 

A  strong  electric,  thrill. 

A  spark  flashed  from  thy  beaming  eye, 

Thy  voice  with  music  vocal ; 
I  thought  how  great  a  bliss  if  I 

Could  have  thee  for  my  local. 

Aud  when  through  hours  of  toil  I've  bent, 
How  sweet  a  boon  't  would  be 

To  know  of  your  kind,  tender  heart 
That  I  retain  the  key. 


652  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Should  Cupid's  current  e'er  grow  weak 
(I  say  it  without  flattery), 

I'd  turn  me  to  thy  rosy  cheek, 
And  just  renew  my  battery. 

And  if,  perchance,  our  hearts  grow  cold, 
I'll  tell  thee  how  we'd  work  it — 

With  hand  in  hand,  and  lip  to  lip, 
We  would  complete  love's  circuit. 

Then  murmuring  soft  nonsense  o'er, 
And  quaffing  kisses  sweet, 

Quick  versed  in  telegraphic  lore, 
You'd  whisper,  "  Love,  repeat  /" 

At  last,  when  asked  by  surpliced  priest 

To  honor,  love,  obey, 
I'd  be  content  to  hear  thee  lisp, 

Those  magic  words,  "  O.  K." 

Then  all  the  joys  of  married  life 
Would  cluster  round  us  thick  ; 

With  credit  at  the  grocery  shops, 
We'd  always  "  go  on  tick." 

With  temper  mild  and  never  naughty, 
Bright  as  the  sky,  though  blue  it  be, 

We'd  ne'er  be  troubled  (like  De  Sauty) 
With  broken  continuity. 

Thus  along  life's  stream  we'd  glide, 
The  current  smooth  and  steady, 

And  when  we're  called  to  rest  above, 
We'd  answer,  "  Ay,  ay — ready  /" 


AMUSING    EXPERIMENT    ON    RATS. 


amusing  experiment  on  rats  was  recently  perpetrated 
in  a  mercantile  house  in  Petersburg,  Virginia.  Two  of  the 
animals  had  been  trapped,  and  it  was  decided  to  try  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  653 

effect  of  whisky  upon  them.  Forty  drops  were  adminis 
tered  to  them  by  force,  and  the  result  awaited.  They  were 
placed  in  a  wide,  deep  box,  into  which  some  gravel  had 
been  thrown.  A  saucer  of  whisky  was  placed  therein. 
For  awhile  all  was  silent,  each  rat  having  seated  himself 
in  a  corner,  where  he  remained  as  morose  as  a  rat  could  be. 
By  and  by,  however,  the  liquor  began  to  work.  The  rats 
began  to  smile  and  play  with  their  tails,  then  to  jump  up 
and  squeak,  then  to  fall  down  and  roll  over.  Finally,  one 
of  them  found  the  saucer,  and,  with  the  peculiar  curiosity 
attaching  to  the  race,  dipped  his  nose  into  it.  He  drank, 
and  the  noise  of  his  drinking  brought  his  companion  to  his 
side.  They  drank  as  though  they  were  really  fond  of  the 
stuff,  and,  it  is  estimated,  took  more  than  twice  forty  drops. 
And  now  they  got  glorious.  They  kissed  each  other.  They 
wrestled  and  played  about.  They  revisited  the  saucer,  and 
got  mad  over  it ;  and  a  rough  and  tumble  fight  ensued, 
which  lasted  until  both  were  exhausted.  Then  they  re 
mained  for  awhile,  each  with  a  paw  to  his  nose,  grinning 
at  the  other.  Finally,  both  fell  asleep,  and,  while  they  were 
gloriously  unconscious,  a  terrier  was  dropped  before  them, 
and  the  curtain  falls. 

A   TOUCHING    TRIBUTE    TO    WOMAN. 

SAY,  what  is  lighter  than  a  feather  ? 
Dust,  my  friend,  in  driest  weather. 
What's  lighter  than  the  dust,  I  pray  ? 
The  wind  that  wafts  it  far  away. 
And  what  is  lighter  than  the  wind  ? 
The  lightness  of  a  woman's  mind. 
And  what  is  lighter  than  this  last  ? 
Ah,  now,  my  friend,  you  have  me  fast ! 


THREE    WORDS    OF    STRENGTH. 

THERE  are  three  lessons  I  would  write — 
Three  words,  as  with  a  burning  pen, 

In  tracings  of  eternal  light, 
Upon  the  hearts  of  men. 


654  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

Have  Hope.     Though  clouds  environ  now, 
And  gladness  hides  her  face  in  scorn, 

Put  thou  the  shadow  from  thy  brow — 
No  night  but  hath  its  morn. 

Have  Faith.     Where'er  thy  bark  is  driven — 
The  calm's  disport,  the  tempest's  mirth — 

Know  this — God  rules  the  hosts  of  heaven, 
The  inhabitants  of  earth. 

Have  Love.     Not  love  alone  for  one, 

But  man,  as  man,  thy  brothers  call, 
And  scatter,  like  the  circling  sun, 

Thy  charities  on  all. 

Thus  grave  these  lessons  on  thy  soul — 

Hope,  Faith,  and  Love— and  thou  shalt  find 

Strength  when  life's  surges  rudest  roll, 
Light  when  thou  else  wert  blind. 

SCHILLER. 


ON   THE    BEACH. 

ON  the  smooth  beach,  one  calm  delicious  day, 
We  watched  the  breakers  chase  the  hours  away ; 
The  golden  sun  poured  his  full  radiance  down, 
The  white  surf  rimmed  the  sea — a  silver  crown ; 
We  heard  the  pulses  of  the  ocean  beat, 
Its  throbbing  life-blood  dashing  at  our  feet, 
We  traced  our  names  in  silence  on  the  sand, 
One  with  a  rough,  one  with  a  soft  white  hand  j 
One,  traced  by  beauty  in  the  flush  of  life, 
One,  by  a  man  storm-scarred  in  sterner  strife ; 
And  round  them  Memory,  from  her  treasures,  cast 
The  brilliant  sea-shells  of  the  buried  past ; 
Two  little  children  sent  their  ships  to  sea, — 
Where  shall  the  harbor  of  their  treasures  be  ? 

Washed  by  the  waves,  half-sunk  in  changing  sand, 
A  skeleton  wreck  lay  on  the  treacherous  strand ; 
That  shattered  ship  became  a  white-winged  boat, 
Once  more  upon  the  ocean  waves  afloat ; 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  655 

Two  friends  were  wafted  by  the  balmy  breeze, 

Into  the  summer  of  warm  southern  seas, 

Time  fled  unnoted ;  every  dreamy  sense 

Reposed  in  deep,  delicious,  dreamy  indolence  ; 

Earth's  rugged  landmarks  faded  out  of  view, 

The  sky  and  ocean,  one  expanse  of  blue  ; 

The  vault  of  sapphire  bent  to  kiss  the  sea, 

Like  the  pure  eyes  bent  lovingly  on  me  ; 

The  blue  waves,  pouting,  sought  to  taste  the  bliss 

Pressed  to  my  own  lips  in  a  burning  kiss. 

On,  on  we  drifted,  till  an  emerald  isle 

Bathed  in  the  beauty  of  the  tropics'  smile, 

Burst  on  our  view,  clasped  in  old  ocean's  arms, 

Whose  white  lips  kissed  its  never-fading  charms. 

Gladly  my  feet  had  trod  the  enchanted  shore, 

Her  hand  in  mine,  to  go  back  nevermore ; 

But  the  fair  wanderer  who  embarked  with  me, 

Turned  back  our  ship  across  the  trackless  sea, 

Trimmed  the  white  sails  until  we  reached  the  strand, 

And  saw  our  names  washed  from  the  fickle  sand. 

Tell  me,  O  silent,  sullen,  fathomless  sea  ! 
Wilt  thou  return  my  precious  ships  to  me  ? 
Or,  wilt  thou  cast  them  wrecks  upon  the  shore, 
Bleaching  like  skeletons,  forevermore  ? 


ARCHAEOLOGY    OF    XORTII    AMERICA. 

|HE  northern  continent  of  America  affords,  though 
it  might  seem  otherwise,  an  extensive  field  for 
archaeological  research,  and  an  excellent  test  of 
the  true  value  of  the  theories  which  have  been 
propounded  as  to  the  origin  of  civilization  and 
of  art  in  the  eastern  hemisphere.  Historically, 
as  well  as  geographically,  the  area  is  almost  unbounded,  and 
has  been  occupied,  in  all  probability,  from  the  remotest 
antiquity,  by  different  nations,  if  not  by  different  races  of 
mankind,  in  various  stages  of  social,  political,  arid  intel 
lectual  development.  The  ancient  remains,  many  of  which 


656  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

are  in  a  singularly  perfect  condition,  considering  the  lapse 
of  so  many  centuries,  are  calculated  to  impress  the  most 
stolid  beholder  with  admiration  and  awe.  Unlike  the  relics 
of  antiquity  in  the  Old  World,  they  have  suffered  less  from 
the  vandalism  of  man  than  from  the  ravages  of  time.  The 
advancing  emigrant,  and  the  retreating  Indian — each  in  his 
turn — have  contributed  to  their  preservation ;  the  one  from 
economical,  the  other  from  superstitious  motives.  Their 
number  is  so  vast,  their  distribution  so  unequal,  and  their 
character  so  diverse,  as  to  render  any  attempt  at  a  classifi 
cation — in  this  place  at  least — a  profitless  task.  From 
Guatemala  to  Upper  Canada,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  the  surface  is  strewn  with  stupendous  ruins 
of  pyramidal  temples  and  tumuli,  intrenched  camps  and 
fortifications,  walled  towns  and  villages,  amphitheaters 
and  pictorial  grottoes,  embankments  and  bridges,  towers  and 
obelisks,  wells  and  aqueducts,  high-roads  and  causeways, 
gardens  and  artificial  meadows  ;  the  greater  ^)art  of  which 
were  designed,  constructed,  and  maintained  by  numerous, 
intelligent,  and  skillful  races  of  men  who  have  long  since 
disappeared  from  the  several  scenes  of  their  labor,  be 
queathing  to  posterity  no  written,  nor  even  a  solitary 
traditional  memorial  of  themselves  or  of  their  ancestors. 
Some  portion  of  their  history,  nevertheless,  may  be  dimly 
discerned  by  the  light  of  analogy.  But  before  speculating 
on  their  probable  origin,  or  determining  to  what  particular 
branch  of  the  human  family  they  belonged,  or  from  whom 
they  derived  elementary  instruction  in  the  arts  and  con 
veniences  of  life,  let  us  take  a  glance  at  their  country,  as  it 
presented  itself  to  the  astonished  gaze  of  the  Spaniards  at 
the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

In  that  age,  the  continent  of  North  America,  so  far  as 
relates  to  its  territorial  divisions,  its  political  circumstances, 
and  the  dispersion  of  its  multitudinous  families,  differed  less 
than  might  be  supposed  from  its  present  condition.  Then, 
as  now,  fixed  communities  and  nomadic  tribes  divided  the 
soil  between  them.  In  their  respective  modes  of  existence, 
the  best  of  the  inhabitants  exhibited  but  an  imperfect  civili 
zation,  and  the  worst  of  them  but  a  qualified  barbarism  ;  the 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  657 

first  were  emerging  from,  and  the  second  were  sinking  into, 
a  state  of  social  decrepitude  and  moral  ruin.  Nor  is  this 
the  only  instance  of  the  verification  in  the  New  World  of 
the  maxim  in  the  Old,  that  history  reproduces  itself.  As  in 
the  nineteenth  so  in  the  sixteenth  century,  one  great  national 
confederation  eclipsed  all  the  surrounding  principalities  or 
kingdoms.  The  ancient  Mexican  League,  including  the 
several  sovereignties  of  Anahuac,  Tezcuco,  and  Tlacopan, 
occupied  that  pre-eminent  position,  and  exercised  that  para 
mount  influence,  north  of  the  Tropic  of  Cancer,  which  has 
since  become  the  indisputable  inheritance  of  the  United 
States.  Less  intelligent  and  humane  than  the  Acolhuans 
and  Nahuatlacas,  the  founders  respectively  of  Tezcuco  and 
Tlacopan,  but  more  warlike  and  ambitious  than  either,  the 
Aztecas  of  Mexico  assumed  the  lead  in  all  military  and 
aggressive  enterprises,  and  were  gradually  extending  their 
dominion,  which  already  reached  from  the  fourteenth  to  the 
twenty-first  degree  of  north  latitude,  and  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  when  they  were  startled  by  the  sudden 
apparition  of  the  Spaniards.  The  story  of  their  tragical  con 
quest,  as  has  been  remarked,  reads  more  like  a  fiction  of 
romance  than  a  chapter  in  the  annals  of  mankind.  But  with 
that  story,  excepting  so  far  as  concerns  the  progress  which 
the  unfortunate  Aztecas  had  made  in  civilization  and  the 
arts,  we  have  little  to  do  in  this  place.  Their  conquerors,  in 
penetrating  Central  America,  and  reaching  the  elevated 
regions  of  Anahuac,  were  not  less  astonished  by  the  multi 
tude  of  stately  and  populous  cities  than  by  the  wealth  and 
magnificence  of  the  tropical  landscape.  Both  were  a  sur 
prise,  and  surpassingly  beautiful  to  the  hardy  invaders. 
"  When  I  beheld  the  delicious  scenery  around  me,"  ex 
claims  that  honest  old  soldier,  Bernal  Diaz,  "  I  thought  we 
had  been  transported  by  magic  to  the  terrestrial  paradise. 
*  *  Some  of  our  men,  who  had  visited  both  Rome  and 
Constantinople,  declared  that  they  had  not  seen  any  thing 
comparable  in  those  cities  for  convenient  and  regular  distri 
bution,  or  for  numbers  of  people."  Works  of  public  utility, 
some  built  of  brick  and  some  of  stone,  were  visible  in  every 
direction,  many  of  which,  in  magnitude  as  well  as  in  grand- 

42 


658  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

eur,  rivaled  the  most  celebrated  structures  of  antiquity  in 
the  Old  World.  The  terraced-pyramid  of  Cholula,  in  the 
sacred  province  of  Puebla,  which  was  crowned  with  an 
elaborately  decorated  teocalli,  or  "  house  of  God,"  and 
which  was  built,  it  has  been  supposed,  upon  the  model 
of  the  Temple  of  Belus,  described  by  Herodotus,  covered 
an  area  double  that  of  the  largest  of  Egyptian  pyramids  ; 
but  its  altitude  was  greatly  disproportioned  to  the  vast  ex 
tent  of  its  base,  being  no  more  than  177  feet,  or  a  third  only 
of  that  of  Cheops.  The  interior  walls  of  the  teocalli  were 
adorned  with  curiously- wrought  plates  of  silver  and  gold, 
profusely  studded  with  gems.  A  much  greater  expenditure 
of  wealth  and  ingenuity  was  bestowed  upon  the  shrine  of 
the  tutelary  god,  whose  statue,  larger  than  life,  was  graved 
in  the  most  durable  stone,  and  painted  in  the  most  gorgeous 
colors.  There  was  not  a  city  or  populous  village  within  the 
confines  of  the  Anahuacan  territory,  or  in  the  provinces  to 
the  south  of  it,  which  could  not  boast  of  a  temple  more  or 
less  conspicuous  for  its  magnitude  and  sumptuous  embellish 
ments.  In  fact,  storied  palaces  of  princes  and  nobles,  each 
elevated  on  a  series  of  artificial  platforms,  with  magnificent 
flights  of  steps  reaching  to  the  summit ;  long  ranges  of 
scarcely  inferior  terraced  buildings,  with  pillared  facades 
fantastically  carved,  which  were  exclusively  set  apart  for 
the  Mexican  priesthood ;  and  gigantic  lithic  monuments, 
bearing  the  mystical  emblems  of  Sabean,  Phallic,  and  Ophite 
worship,  met  the  gaze  of  the  Spanish  soldier  whithersoever 
he  turned  himself. 

But  architecture  was  not  the  only  art  practiced  by  the 
ancient  Mexican.  He  was  equally  skilled  in  metallurgy. 
Gold,  silver,  copper,  lead,  and  tin  were  the  five  metals  that 
his  country  produced,  or  that  were  known  to  him  ;  and  in 
manipulating  these  he  was  confessedly  not  inferior  to  the 
expertest  craftsman  in  Europe.  His  tools  for  hewing  the 
toughest  timber,  as  well  as  for  dressing  the  hardest  rock, 
were  made  of  copper  alloyed  with  a  small  proportion  of 
tin.  He  found  in  that  composite  metal  an  efficient  substi 
tute  for  iron  and  steel.  His  sculptured  images,  cut  out  of 
solid  blocks  of  basalt,  are  marvelous  specimens  of  manual 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  659 

skill.  Swords,  knives,  and  other  implements,  requiring  the 
keenest  edge,  were  made  of  obsidian,  a  most  difficult  and 
intractable  material  of  volcanic  origin,  which  he  split  into 
the  desired  form  with  amazing  dexterity.  Long  after  the 
subjugation  of  his  country  by  the  Spaniards,  he  set  little 
store  by  that  metal  the  possession  of  which  so  many  of  our 
modern  archaeologists  persist  in  making  the  sole  criterion  of 
a  civilized  condition.  His  skill  and  industry  as  a  mechanic 
may  be  judged  from  a  remarkable  passage  in  Mr.  Taylor's 
"Anahuac"  :— 

"  In  the  plowed  fields,  in  the  neighborhood  [of 
Tezcuco],  we  made  (says  that  gentleman)  repeated  trials 
whether  it  was  possible  to  stand  still  in  any  spot  where  there 
was  no  relic  of  old  Mexico  within  our  reach ;  but  this  we 
could  not  do.  Everywhere  the  ground  was  full  of  unglazed 
pottery  and  obsidian,  and  we  even  found  arrows  and  clay 
figures  that  were  good  enough  for  a  museum." 

The  Aztecas  were  likewise  indefatigable  tillers  of  the 
ground  ;  and  the  East — and  through  the  East  the  whole 
world — is  indebted  to  them  for  the  successful  cultivation  of 
the  maize  and  cotton  plants.  Their  famous  floating  parterres, 
on  the  great  lake  of  Tezcuco,  bore  witness  to  their  singular 
taste  and  ingenuity  as  floriculturists  and  gardeners.  Like 
the  Egyptians,  they  had  contrived  a  pictorial  method  of  re 
cording  events,  and  so  of  perpetuating  among  themselves, 
if  not  for  the  advantage  of  alien  posterities,  the  chief  partic 
ulars  of  their  history.  It  can  not  be  said  with  certainty, 
but  the  fact  is  far  from  improbable,  that  they  had  invented 
a  phonographical  as  well  as  a  hieroglyphical  character. 
They  had  even  made  some  advancement  in  the  physical 
sciences,  especially  in  astronomy  ;  and  had  a  solar  year  with 
intercalations  more  accurately  calculated  than  that  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans.  But  neither  the  greatest  progress  in 
the  mechanical  arts  and  physical  sciences,  nor  the  possession 
of  the  most  ingenious  and  equitable  code  of  laws,  and  its 
due  administration,  will  compensate  for  the  absence  of  a 
humanizing,  if  not  spiritualizing,  system  of  religion.  The 
bloody  ritual  of  the  Aztecan  priesthood  constitutes  by  far 
the  foulest  page  in  the  humiliating  register  of  superstition 


660  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

and  fanaticism.  The  rites  of  Moloch  and  Astaroth  appear 
merciful  when  contrasted  with  those  of  Mexitli  and  Teo- 
yaomiqui,  whose  abominable  altars,  from  sunrise  to  sunset, 
reeked  with  the  fumes  of  human  gore.  The  victims  were 
usually  captives  taken  on  the  battle-field.  The  effects  of 
national  depravity,  unhappily,  are  not  to  be  restricted  to 
the  limits  of  the  country  within  which  it  originates  ;  on  the 
contrary,  like  circles  made  by  the  falling  of  a  stone  on  a  pool 
of  water,  they  continue  to  expand  with  irresistible  momen 
tum  until  the  area — be  it  small  or  be  it  large,  an  island  or  a 
continent — is  completely  overspread.  Thus,  to  this  day, 
the  baneful  effects  of  the  former  cruelty  in  Mexico  are  still 
widely  felt  on  the  northern  continent  of  America.  The  un 
tutored  descendants  of  those  people  whom  the  Aztecas  so 
relentlessly  pursued — we  allude  to  the  unsettled  and  degen 
erate  Indians  wandering  over  the  vast  deserts  to  the  west 
of  the  Mississippi — still  retaliate  upon  their  neighbors  the 
shocking  barbarities  which  their  ancestors  endured  ;  and 
were  any  additional  evidence  required  in  support  of  the 
true  origin  of  the  lingering  practice,  it  is  conveyed  in  the 
fact  that  they  likewise  excuse  themselves  with  the  plea  of  a 
duty  no  less  sacred  than  urgent.  The  Old  World  adage,  "we 
live  more  by  example  than  by  reason,"  expresses  in  brief 
the  moral  status  of  every  savage  community. 

The  national  records  of  the  Aztecas,  confirmed  in  a  great 
measure  by  the  observations  of  their  conquerors,  establish 
several  most  interesting  and  most  important  facts  in  the 
natural  history  of  civilization.  When  first  confronted  by 
the  Spaniards  they  had  been  seated  in  Mexico  rather  less 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Toward  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century  of  our  era,  they  had  migrated  from  a  spot 
traditionally  known  as  Atzlan,  or  "  the  country  of  water  ;" 
most  likely  the  territory  inclosed  within  the  angle  formed 
by  the  junction  of  the  Rio  Colorado  and  the  Rio  Gila,  at  the 
head  of  the  Gulf  of  California.  They  did  not  reach  the 
table-land  of  Anahuac,  however,  until  the  year  1324.  No 
date  in  their  history  has  been  better  established  than  this. 
We  have  an  indubitable  instance,  therefore,  of  a  nomadic 
horde  suddenly  suppressing  the  instincts  of  their  nature,  re- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  6G1 

linquishing  the  habits  of  savage  life,  becoming  a  permanently 
settled  people,  developing  a  capacity  for  political  organiza 
tion,  raising  stupendous  piles  of  brick  and  stone,  construct 
ing  and  embellishing  innumerable  cities,  cultivating  the  arts 
and  sciences,  and  making  such  advancement  in  astronomy 
more  particularly,  as  not  only  to  rival  but  to  surpass  that 
which  was  made  by  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  antiquity 
in  Asia  and  Europe.  And  all  these  astonishing  results  are 
crowded  within  the  comparatively  limited  space  of  a  century 
and  a  half !  We  are  left  in  no  doubt,  moreover,  whence  this 
extraordinary  people,  and  the  tribes  associated  with  them, 
derived  much  of  their  civilization,  and  a  knowledge  at  least 
of  architecture — facts  which  are  quite  as  remarkable  as  those 
just  mentioned.  The  Mexican  empire  was  built  upon  the 
ruins  of  that  of  the  Toltecas,  who,  in  the  eleventh  century, 
had  been  overwhelmed  by  the  successive  calamities  of  war, 
famine,  and  pestilence.  Like  the  Aztecas,  the  Toltecas  had 
traveled  originally  from  the  northwestern  parts  of  the  con 
tinent  ;  and,  according  to  the  local  historians  contemporary 
with  the  first  Spanish  adventurers,  had  occupied  the  vale  of 
Anahuac  from  the  seventh  century  of  our  era.  They  are 
said  to  have  been  established  in  New  Mexico  from  300  B.C., 
which  we  may  observe,  by  the  way,  is  the  earliest  assumed 
date  in  the  annals  of  the  aboriginal  Americans.  The  origin 
of  the  Toltecas  is  shrouded  in  mythological  fable.  It  was 
traditionally  held  that  their  ancestors  had  migrated  from 
"  the  distant  East,  beyond  immense  seas  and  lands."  They 
had  wrested  the  territory  of  Anahuac  from  a  powerful  na 
tion  called  the  Ulmecas,  or  Olmecas,  who,  in  their  turn,  had 
displaced  the  Quinames,  a  fabulous  race  of  giants.  The 
light  of  documentary  history  just  rellects  the  declining  years 
of  the  Toltecan  dominion,  and  discloses  to  our  view  the 
pre-eminent  position  which  they  held  in  the  eyes  of  their 
contemporaries,  and  the  favorable  influence  that  they 
exercised  over  them.  Of  all  the  ancient  American  nations 
of  whom  tradition  or  history  has  preserved  any  notice,  these 
people  were  by  far  the  most  civilized  and  ingenious.  Hum- 
boldt  has  designated  them  the  Pelasgi  of  the  western  hemis 
phere,  and  Prescott  states  that  their  tribal  appellation  is 


662  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

synonymous  with  architect.  The  survivors  of  their  race, 
when  driven  from  their  old  habitations,  retreated  toward 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  and  scattered  themselves  about 
Yucatan,  Guatemala,  and  Nicaragua,  where  their  presence 
may  be  traced  to  this  day  in  the  language  of  the  people  and 
in  the  numberless  ruins  of  once  beautiful  structures. 

Spanish  intolerance  in  the  New  World,  at  the  period  of 
the  conquest,  which  involved  the  loss  of  so  many  precious 
memorials  of  a  primitive  people,  and  Spanish  jealousy  in 
subsequent  times,  which  denied  the  foreigner  access  to,  and 
almost  a  glimpse  of,  the  vanquished  territories,  will  abund 
antly  account  for  the  ignorance  of  Europeans  in  general,  and 
of  such  authors  as  Robertson  in  particular,  as  to  the  real 
condition  of  America  in  the  pre-Columbian  ages.  For  his 
well-known  history,  that  admirable  writer  was  exclusively 
dependent  upon  Spanish  authorities  ;  whose  national,  to 
say  nothing  of  their  ecclesiastical,  prejudices  (nine-tenths 
of  them  were  churchmen)  would  necessarily  make  them 
reluctant  if  not  treacherous  guides.  Hence  he  was  led  to 
believe  that,  excepting  within  the  limits  of  the  two  great 
monarchies  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  the  whole  continent  of 
America  had  been,  from  the  earliest  epoch,  the  abode  of  un 
civilized  men.  "There  is  not,"  says  he,  "in  all  the  extent 
of  the  vast  empire  a  single  monument,  or  vestige  of  any 
building,  more  ancient  than  the  conquest;"  and  again: 
"  The  inhabitants  of  the  New  World  were  in  a  state  of  soci 
ety  so  extremely  rude  as  to  be  unacquainted  with  those  arts 
which  are  the  first  essays  of  human  ingenuity  in  its  advance 
ment  toward  improvement."  When  the  historian  thus  ex 
pressed  himself  he  was  totally  ignorant  not  only  of  the  exist 
ence  of  those  remarkable  edifices  in  Central  America  which 
have  been  recently  exhumed  from  the  depths  of  tropical 
vegetation — all  incontestably  proving  that  the  builders  of 
them,  instead  of  being,  as  he  too  hastily  concluded,  a  savage 
and  uncultivated  people,  had  made,  on  the  contrary,  very 
considerable  progress  in  civilization  and  in  the  higher 
branches  of  art — but  also  of  those  much  more  ancient  monu 
ments,  which,  according  to  local  report,  umay  be  counted 
by  thousands  and  by  tens  of  thousands,"  and  which  are  to 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  C63 

be  found,  for  the  most  part,  on  the  alluvions  of  the  Missis 
sippi  and  Missouri,  and,  to  a  lesser  extent,  in  the  States  of 
the  Union  bordering  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  those  States, 
more  especially,  he  who  runs  may  read  one  of  the  earliest 
chapters  in  the  history  of  his  species  after  the  Dispersion  ; 
or  find,  if  he  will,  the  very  counterpart  of— 

"  The  fallen  towers 
Of  Babylon,  the  eternal  pyramids, 
Memphis  and  Thebes,  and  whatsoe'er  of  strange 
Sculptured  on  alabaster  obelisk, 
Or  jasper  tomb,  or  mutilated  sphinx, 
Dark  Ethiopia  on  her  desert  hills 
Conceals." 

For  the  western  hemisphere  can  boast  of  an  Egypt  as  well 
as  the  eastern. 

The  aboriginal  monuments  of  North  America,  including 
those  of  Mexico  and  of  the  provinces  to  the  south  of  it,  are 
clearly  referable  to  three  distinct  and  possibly,  very  widely 
separated  epochs  in  the  pre-Columbian  history  of  the  con 
tinent,  For  conveniency's  sake  we  shall  designate  these 
epochs  respectively  the  earliest,  the  intermediate,  and  the 
recent ;  and  agreeably  with  what  has  gone  before,  we  shall 
invert  the  order  of  this  sequence.  By  this  arrangement  we 
shall  hope  to  establish  the  general  fact  of  mankind  in  the 
New  World— whatever  may  have  been  their  destiny  in  the 
Old— never  having  extinguished  that  spark  of  divinity 
which  was  originally  kindled  within  them ;  or,  in  other 
words,  wholly  lost  that  civilization  which  they  had  inher 
ited  from  their  progenitors,  the  first  wanderers  irom  the 
northern  regions  of  India,  that  "real  primordial  land"  (as 
Schlegel  emphatically  calls  it),  where  every  thing  combines 
to  point  out  a  common  origin  of  our  faith,  our  knowledge, 
and  our  history.  By  "civilization"  we  simply  mean  in 
this  place,  the  converse  of  barbarism.  There  have  been, 
throughout  all  time,  divers  phases  of  civilization,  as  well  as 
divers  populations  in  the  world— an  agrestic  as  well  as  an 
urban  civilization;  and  the  progress  achieved,  in  either 
case  has  depended  as  much  upon  local  resources  as  upon 


Qjf   1H-M 


664  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

the  idiosyncrasy  of  the  people.  To  what  degree  of  civiliza 
tion  the  North  American  nations  in  pre-historical  times  had 
attained,  can  only  be  judged  analogically,  or  by  comparing 
their  structural  monuments  and  relics  of  art  with  those  of 
the  most  cultivated  people  of  antiquity  in  the  Old  World. 
In  the  new  edition  of  Mr.  Fergusson's  History  of  Archi 
tecture,  which  is  a  monument  of  erudition,  taste,  and  inge 
nious  reasoning,  the  author  has  devoted  a  chapter  to  the 
architectural  remains  of  the  early  American  peoples,  and 
has  shown  that  whatever  can  now  be  known  of  those  extinct 
and  unrecorded  races  must  be  derived  from  a  searching 
comparison  of  the  structures  they  left  behind  them.  There, 
and  there  alone,  are  still  to  be  found  the  vestiges  of  their 
passage  on  the  earth ;  and  it  is  from  these  mute  witnesses 
that  we  have  chiefly  extracted  the  evidence  that  we  are 
about  to  lay  before  our  readers. 

At  the  period  of  the  conquest  by  Cortes,  the  valley  of 
Anahuac,  although  recognized  as  the  chief  seat  of  political 
authority  on  the  northern  continent  of  America,  was  not  the 
center  of  civilization.  The  people  of  the  southern  prov 
inces,  from  Yucatan  and  Panama,  were  much  more  refined 
and  ingenious  than  their  unscrupulous  suzerains,  the  Azte- 
cas,  with  whom  the  keen-sighted  Spanish  conqueror,  when 
he  was  ennobled  by  his  sovereign,  and  permitted  to  select  a 
territory  for  himself,  cast  in  his  lot.  Their  magnificent 
architectural  remains  have  been  made  known  to  Europe  by 
the  able  pens  of  Messrs.  Stephens  and  Norman  and  the  pen 
cils  of  Messrs,  de  Waldeck  and  Catherwood. 

The  first  and  last  named  gentlemen,  in  their  irregular 
wanderings  together  about  Central  America,  discovered  no 
less  than  fifty-four  ancient  cities,  and  incidentally  heard  of 
many  others,  situated  in  deserts  and  forests,  which  they 
were  unable  to  explore.  The  most  interesting  monument 
of  this  extinct  civilization  were  found  at  Uxmal  or  Itzlan, 
Palenque,  Ocosingo,  Oajaca,  Santa  Cruz  del  Quiche,  and 
Copan.  The  wildest  opinions  have  been  expressed  as  to  the 
supposed  antiquity  of  these  remains,  the  principal  of  which 
consist  of  temples,  palaces,  and  other  imposing  structures, 
usually  elevated  upon  pyramidal  mounds,  or  upon  vast 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  G65 

terraces  of  stone  or  of  sun-dried  brick,  now  all  in  various 
stages  of  decay.  M.  de  Waldeck  supposes  the  ruins  of 
Palenque,  in  Chiapas,  to  be  not  less  than  3, 000  years  old  ; 
and  some  antiquaries  have  even  relegated  them  to  an  ante 
diluvian  epoch !  Other  travelers  who  have  also  visited 
them,  lend  no  countenance  whatever  to  such  extravagant 
conclusions  as  these.  As  Mr.  Fergusson  long  ago  observed, 
in  a  climate  so  fatal  as  that  of  Central  America  to  the  dura 
bility  of  any  class  of  buildings,  it  is  obvious  that  those  still 
in  existence  can  not  belong  to  a  very  remote  era.  The  pres 
ence  of  timber  in  most  of  them  is  conclusive  on  this  point. 
The  period  within  which  we  are  disposed  to  limit  the 
building  of  the  Central  American  edifices  ranges  from  the 
first  to  the  seventh  century  of  our  era.  The  interior  ar 
rangement  and  decorations  of  some  of  the  temples  appear 
to  indicate  an  Asiatic  source,  and  afford,  therefore,  a  clue 
to  an  approximate  date  of  their  erection.  In  the  order  of 
time,  the  ruins  of  Copan,  in  the  province  of  Honduras, 
abounding  with  monolithic  statues  of  Indian  deities,  are 
probably  among  the  oldest  of  the  series  ;  those  of  ganta 
Cruz  del  Quiche,  in  Guatemala,  which  are  in  the  most  dilap 
idated  condition  of  any,  rank  next  to  them  ;  then  follow 
those  of  Uxmal,  in  Yucatan,  where  neither  an  idol  nor 
carved  tablet  is  to  be  seen  ;  while  those  of  Mitlan  in  Oajaca, 
and  of  Palenque  in  Chiapas,  the  former  conspicuous  for 
their  Cyclopean  masonry,  and  the  latter  for  their  elaborate 
ornamentation,  are  among  the  most  modern  of  the  series. 
Want  of  space  precludes  our  entering  upon  any  particular 
description  of  these  and  similar  interesting  vestiges  of  an 
tiquity  which  are  so  lavishly  scattered  over  the  entire  sur 
faces  of  Yucatan  and  Central  America.  We  can  do  little 
more  in  this  place  than  refer  our  readers  to  the  admirable 
delineations  of  the  most  perfect  of  them  by  Mr.  Cather- 
wood,  which  that  gentleman  published  in  this  country  a 
few  years  ago ;  and  to  the  sumptuous  work  of  M.  de  Wal 
deck,  which  is  still  in  progress.  The  several  structures 
differ,  of  course,  in  various  minor  details,  but  the  striking 
affinities  observable  in  all  of  them  betoken  a  common  origin. 
"It  is  curious,"  says  Mr.  Fergusson,  although  he  is  no  im- 


666  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

plicit  believer  in  the  transmission  of  races,  "that  as  we 
advance  eastward  from  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  at  every 
step  we  meet  with  forms  of  art  more  and  more  like  those  of 
Central  America."  Von  Humboldt  was  the  first,  we  be 
lieve,  to  mark  the  curious  points  of  resemblance  between 
many  of  the  architectural  remains  in  the  New  World  and 
the  most  ancient  of  them  in  the  Old ;  but  he  was  much  too 
cautious  a  savant  to  commit  himself  to  any  positive  theory  in 
the  matter  in  the  absence  of  better  illustrations  than  Mexico 
alone  afforded  him.  Had  he  been  permitted,  however,  to 
penetrate  the  interior  of  Central  America,  and  to  gaze  upon 

" the  ruined  temples  there  ; 


Stupendous  columns,  and  wild  images 

Of  more  than  man :  where  marble  demons  watch 

The  Zodiac's  brazen  mystery,  and  dead  men 

Hang  their  mute  thoughts  on  the  mute  walls  around," 

his  shrewd  suspicions  regarding  their  true  origin  would 
have  been  abundantly  verified — in  a  word,  the  conclusion 
would  have  been  forced  upon  him  that  many  of  the  teocal- 
lis,  or  sacred  edifices,  with  all  their  fantastical  appendages, 
were  identical  with  the  B'hudist  temples  in  the  southern 
parts  of  India,  and  in  the  islands  of  the  Indian  Archipelago, 
And  this  fact,  as  before  intimated,  gives  us  a  clue  to  the 
age  in  which  one  at  least  of  the  most  modern  of  them  was 
built.  The  great  temple  of  Palenque  so  closely  corresponds, 
in  its  principal  details,  with  that  of  Boro-Bodo  in  the  prov 
ince  of  Kedu,  in  the  island  of  Java,  as  to  place  beyond  all 
reasonable  debate  the  common  purpose  and  origin  of  both. 
Both  are  elevated  on  a  series  of  graduated  platforms  or  ter 
races,  and  are  reached  by  successive  flights  of  steps  facing 
the  cardinal  points  ;  the  chambers  in  both  are  dispropor 
tionately  small,  with  no  apertures,  excepting  the  doorways, 
for  the  admission  of  air  and  light ;  their  curved  ceilings, 
formed  of  stones  overlapping  each  other  triangularwise,  and 
constituting  what  is  known  as  the  Cyclopean  arch,  are  pre 
cisely  alike  ;  the  walls  of  both  are  adorned  with  mytho- 
hieroglyphical  tablets,  in  which  the  head  of  the  Asiatic 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  667 

elephant  is  conspicuous,  the  meaning  of  which  has  yet  to  be 
deciphered  ;  and  lastly,  in  the  sanctuaries  of  both,  B'huda 
is  represented  in  colossal  dignity,  seated  cross-legged  upon 
a  couch  or  throne  sustained  by  crouching  leopards,  and 
benignly  receiving  an  offering  of  fruit  and  flowers  from  a 
priestess  who  is  kneeling  before  him.     Mr.  Squier,  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  archaeologists  in  the  States,  while 
admitting  that  coincidences  of  this  kind,  "  extending  to  the 
ornaments  of  the  Indian  and   Central  American  temples, 
monstrous  heads  and  symbolical  figures,  might  be  greatly 
multiplied,"  yet  doubts  whether  the  religion  to  which  they 
belonged  can  be  properly  regarded  as  derivative.     In  our 
judgment,  the  several  features  above  described  are  much  too 
close  and  exact  to  be  accidental ;  they  denote  the  success 
ful  establishment  of  B'hudistic  worship  in  both  countries, 
and  probably  about  the  same  time.     A  comparison  of  certain 
dates  and  concurrent  events  will  considerably  strengthen 
this  supposition,  if  not  confirm  it.     It  is  well  known  that 
the  milder  religion  of  B'huda  was  introduced  into  Java  at 
a  comparatively  recent  period,  namely,  about  A.  D.  450 ; 
and,  according  to  the  local  tradition,  the  famous  temple  of 
B6ro-B6do  was  built  in  the  sixth  century  of  the  Javan  era, 
•which  is  seventy-five  years  in  arrear  of  our  own.     Now  the 
last-mentioned  date  synchronizes  with  two  most  important 
events  in  the  histories  respectively  of  the  eastern  and  western 
continents.     It  was  then  that  the  first  of  the  long  series  of 
religious  wars  between  the  Brahminsand  B'hudists  occurred, 
and  which  ultimately  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  the  latter, 
and  their  expulsion  from  the  soil  of  Hindostan  ;  and  it  was 
then  likewise  that  various  tribes,  bigoted  followers  of  Teoy- 
aomiqui,  of  whom  the  implacable  and  sanguinary  Kali  of 
the  Hindoos  was  the  prototype,  were  successfully  impelled 
forward  from  the  northwestern  deserts  of  North  America, 
and  eventually  established  themselves  and  their  merciless 
creed  in  the  valley  of  Anahuac.     If,  as  the  Abbe  Clavigero 
calculates,  the  Toltecas  did  not  abandon  the  last-mentioned 
territory,  and  pass  into  the  provinces  to  the  south  of  it,  later 
than  A.  D.  1051,  the  age  of  the  great  temple  of  Palenque,  at 
the  period  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  would  barely  exceed 


6G8  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

five  hundred  years ;    and  the  actual  state  of  the  ruins  at 
this  time  will  warrant  no  higher  antiquity. 

The  Aztecas  were  an  industrious,  but  not  an  inventive 
people.  As  before  remarked,  they  derived  their  knowledge 
of  the  mechanical  arts  from  the  former  occupants  of  Mexico, 
whose  models  they  commonly  adopted.  In  the  matter  of 
architecture  they  seemed  never  to  have  departed  from  the 
primitive  types  set  before  them  ;  a  circumstance  which 
enables  the  archaeologist  to  define,  at  least  with  presumable 
exactitude,  their  geographical  limits.  The  route  which  they 
followed,  from  the  west  to  the  east,  has  been  satisfactorily 
determined,  as  well  as  the  several  spots  where  they  tempo 
rarily  encamped.  It  is  at  the  confluence  of  the  Rio  Colorado 
and  the  Rio  Gila  that  they  appear  for  the  first  time  in 
American  history.  Not  until  they  had  reached  the  table 
lands  of  Mexico  did  they  finally  abandon  their  nomadic 
habits,  and  become  a  civilized  nation.  This  sudden  and 
almost  instantaneous  revolution  in  their  character  and  pur 
suits  was  owing,  in  all  likelihood,  to  the  attractive  scenes 
of  organized  labor  and  domestic  content  that  everywhere 
greeted  them  when  passing,  by  invitation  or  otherwise,  into 
the  territory  skice  known  as  New  Mexico.  That  province 
was  not  then,  as  now,  nearly  depopulated  and  a  sandy 
waste.  At  the  period  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  and  for 
many  centuries  before  it,  the  country  was  densely  peopled, 
and  studded  with  fortified  cities,  stone-built  villages,  and 
isolated  dwellings,  surrounded  by  fruitful  orchards  and 
cultivated  meadows,  and  the  whole  connected  by  a  network 
of  highways.  Successive  droughts,  the  result  of  subter 
ranean  combustion,  have  converted  very  much  of  what  was 
once  a  blooming  garden  into  an  arid  wilderness.  Since  its 
glory  has  departed  but  few  travelers  have  ventured  into 
the  ^province  in  question,  and  fewer  still,  so  far  as  we  are 
aware,  have  interested  themselves  in  the  singular  remains 
of  antiquity  that  are  scattered  along  its  now  almost  deserted 
valleys — remain's  that  mournfully  attest  the  former  existence 
of  a  numerous  and  agricultural  people  but  little  inferior, 
probably,  to  any  civilized  race  of  which  American  history 
or  tradition  has  preserved  a  record.  Those  remains,  which 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  669 

have  been  referred,  but  without  the  smallest  show  of  reason, 
to  the  skill  of  the  Aztecas,  belong  to  our  intermediate  epoch. 
They  exhibit  no  evidence  of  the  mechanical  ability  which  is 
so  manifest  in  the  construction  of  the  temples  and  palaces 
and  other  works  of  Mexico.  The  "pueblos,"  or  cities  of 
the  Indians,  constitute  a  distinct  type  of  architecture  in  the 
New  World.  The  most  celebrated  of  them  are  the  Casas 
Grandes,  the  use  and  age  of  which  so  much  perplexed  Yon 
Humboldt.  It  has  since  been  suggested  that  they  may 
have  served  as  public  granaries  in  pre-Columbian  times. 
"Their  origin,"  says  Mr.  Bartlett,  "is  shrouded  in  mys 
tery." 

"They  were  found1  (he  adds)  much  as  they  now  appear 
by  the  earliest  explorers  of  the  country,  who  were  told  by 
the  Indians  that  they  had  been  built  500  years  before.  One 
thing  is  evident,  that  at  some  former  period  the  valley  of 
the  Gila,  from  this  ruin  [/.  e.,  the  third  of  the  Casas  Gran- 
des]  to  the  western  extremity  of  the  rich  bottom-lands  now 
occupied  by  the  Pimas  and  Coco-Maricopas,  as  well  as  the 
broad  valley  of  the  Salinas,  for  upward  of  forty  miles,  was 
densely  populated.  The  ruined  buildings,  the  irrigating 
canals,  and  the  vast  quantities  of  pottery  of  a  superior 
quality,  show  that,  while  they  were  an  agricultural  people, 
they  were  much  in  advance  of  the  present  semi-civilized 
tribes  of  the  Gila.  But  this  civilization  extended  far  beyond 
the  district  named.  From  information  given  me  by  Leroux, 
it  appears  that  ruins  of  the  same  sort  exist  on  the  San  Fran 
cisco  or  Verde  River  ;  and  Captain  Jolmstone  and* Major 
Emory  botli  saw  similar  evidences  of  wide-spread  popula 
tion  far  above  the  district  in  question." 

Pueblos,  in  fact,  are  dispersed  throughout  the  country 
which  extends  from  the  banks  of  the  Rio  Grande,  in  New 
Mexico,  to  the  Gila,  the  Colorado,  and  the  Vermilion  Sea 
which  divides  California  from  New  Spain.  Some  are  so  an 
cient  that  no  Indian  tradition  of  the  present  races  makes  any 
mention  of  them.  Each  served  at  once  for  a  city  and  fortress. 
Sometimes  they  are  discovered  standing  singly  or  in  groups 
on  the  plains,  and  sometimes  crowning  the  summits  of  per 
pendicular  rocks.  In  the  former  case  they  are  generally 


670  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK, 

"built  of  adobes*  or  sun-dried  clay ;  in  the  latter,  of  stone. 
The  most  remarkable  are  the  pueblos  Pintado  and  Wejegi, 
in  the  narrow  pass  of  Chaco,  situated  between  35°  56'  27" 
north  latitude,  and  107°  46'  west  longitude,  for  a  description 
of  which  we  must  refer  our  readers  to  the  pages  of  the  Abbe 
Domenech  (vol.  i.  p.  379). 

As  a  general  rule,  the  pueblo  takes  the  form  of  an  irreg 
ular  pyramid,  rising  by  gradations  until  it  reaches  an  eleva 
tion  of  three  or  four  stories.  Old  Spanish  writers,  contem 
poraries  of  Cortez,  mention  some  pueblos  that  rose  to  the 
extraordinary  height  of  ten  stories.  That  of  Pintado,  both 
in  altitude  and  extent,  is  comparatively  small,  much  smaller 
indeed  than  that  of  the  neighboring  ruins  of  Wejegi.  It 
boasts  but  of  three  stories.  Each  story,  ten  feet  in  height, 
forms  a  terrace  and  a  step  to  the  story  above,  which  is 
attained  by  means  of  wooden  ladders  resting  against  the 
wall.  The  total  length  of  the  structure  is  130  yards.  There 
are  fifty-three  apartments  on  the  ground-floor,  all  opening 
the  one  into  the  other.  The  miniature  doorways  constitute 
a  problem  in  the  archaeology  of  architecture  which  has  yet 
to  be  solved. 

* '  The  floors  are  formed  of  very  rough  beams  7J  inches  in 
diameter,  over  which  are  transversely  laid  cross-beams  of 
less  size ;  above  these  is  a  layer  of  bark  and  brushwood, 
covered  over  with  mortar.  These  beams  show  no  mark  of 
having  been  wrought  by  ax  or  saw ;  they  rather  appear  to 
have  been  cut  or  broken  off  with  some  rude  instrument 
more  blunt  than  sharp." 

From  the  fact  of  the  mortar  used  throughout  this  building 
never  having  been  tempered,  we  conclude  it  to  be  one  of 
the  most  ancient  monuments  of  the  kind  in  that  part  of  the 
continent.  Elsewhere,  as  in  the  district  washed  by  the  Salt 
River  and  Gila,  the  interior  walls  of  the  ruined  houses  are 
usually  stuccoed,  or  faced  ' '  with  a  kind  of  concrete,  com 
posed  of  pebbles  and  white  earth,  polished  and  whitened 
over,"  which  would  seem  to  be  absolutely  indestructible; 
whilst  the  beams  of  cedar,  often  a  yard  in  diameter,  bear 
marks  of  having  been  dressed  with  appropriate  tools. 
Owing  to  the  extreme  rarefaction  of  the  atmosphere  in  these 


CALIFORXA  SCRAP-BOOK.  671 

latitudes,  all  descriptions  of  timber  are  preserved  for  an  in 
definite  term  ;  cedar,  more  especially,  hardens  with  age,  till 
at  length  it  becomes  almost  as  solid  as  stone.  When,  there 
fore,  house-beams  of  that  wood  are  discovered  exhibiting 
signs  of  decay,  as  in  the  ponderous  ruins  of  the  Casas 
Grandes,  and  in  those  near  the  mountains  of  San  Pedro,  a 
high  antiquity  of  the  buildings  may  be  confidently  inferred. 

But  old  as  the  erections  we  have  just  instanced  may  be, 
there  are  others  in  these  remote  regions  very  much  older. 
They  are  built  of  stone,  and  are  doubtless  the  most  primi 
tive  specimens  of  architecture  in  that  material  as  yet  dis 
covered  in  the  New  World.  Both  in  their  external  forms 
and  internal  arrangements,  they  closely  resemble  the  most 
ancient  edifices  in  Palestine,  and  such  as  are  attributed  to 
the  Kelts  in  this  country.  Each  structure  is  circular,  being 
wholly  built,  too,  of  rounded  stones  laid  in  alternate  belts 
or  courses  of  large  and  small,  and  the  interstices  filled  in  with 
kneaded  clay.  Each,  moreover,  is  encompassed  by  a  solid 
rampart,  sometimes  constructed  of  stone,  but  more  frequent 
ly  of  earth.  In  these  primitive  habitations,  the  apartments 
of  which  are  numerous,  spacious,  and  oftentimes  circular, 
timber  appears  to  have  been  entirely  dispensed  with. 
Lastly,  there  are  invariably  four  entrances  to  each,  answer 
ing  to  the  four  cardinal  points.  These  curious  ruins  chiefly 
abound  on  the  banks  of  the  Blue,  the  Black,  and  the 
Salt  rivers.  On  the  last-mentioned  they  are  more  con 
siderable  than  elsewhere.  Tumuli,  tru  icated  pyramids, 
and  wells  now  choked  with  debris  and  inclosed  by  walls, 
are  also  to  be  met  with  in  the  same  localities.  "Excava 
tions  among  these  majestic  ruins,"  observes  the  Abbe 
Domenech,  "  have  yielded  abundant  fragments  of  beautiful 
pottery,  red,  yellow,  or  black,  striped,  scolloped,  and  orna 
mented  with  brilliantly  colored  paintings." 

There  is  another  class  of  primitive  structures  in  the  same 
regions,  which  deserves  something  more  than  a  passing 
notice,  namely,  the  Estvfas.  Whether  these  are  the  ad 
juncts  of  the  more  modern  pueblos,  or  of  the  more  ancient 
circular  "  towns,"  seems  questionable.  They  are  found  in 
close  proximity  to  both,  and  were  once  used,  it  is  supposed, 


672  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

as  places  of  meeting  for  political  or  religious  assemblies. 
They  partake  very  much  of  the  character  of  the  ancient 
cryptce  of  Greece,  Sicily,  and  Sardinia  ;  and  in  some  respects 
even  surpass  those  of  Mycenae  and  Minyas. 

"Properly  speaking  (says  the  Abbe  Domenech)  these 
estufas  are  round  or  square  store-rooms,  usually  situated 
beneath  the  soil,  like  cellars  ;  they  are  sometimes  of  large 
dimensions.  The  ceiling  is  supported  by  enormous  pillars 
of  masonry,  or  made  of  stout  pine-trees.  *  *  These  edifices 
are  generally  devoid  of  door  or  window,  and  the  only  in 
gress  to  them  is  from  an  aperture  at  the  top.  The  estufas 
of  the  Jemez  were  rectangular  and  one  story  only,  being 
about  eight  yards  and  twelve  inches  wide,  by  thirty  feet 
high.  The  interior  walls  of  these  edifices  are  always  cov 
ered  with  hieroglyphical  painting  and  various  ornaments. 
There  are  pueblos  which  possess  no  less  than  four,  and 
even  six,  estufas  of  different  sizes.  Among  the  ruins  of 
Hungo-Pavi,  near  the  beautiful  plateau  of  the  Mesafachada, 
one  of  these  edifices  is  found  which  had  at  least  four  stories, 
buttresses  in  the  interior,  and  walls  a  yard  thick,  by  thirty 
feet  in  height.  But,  to  judge  from  the  rubbish  around 
them,  they  must  once  have  been  much  higher.  The  estufas 
in  the  Pueblo-Bonito  are  sixty  yards  in  circumference,  and 
their  walls  are  regularly  formed  of  layers  of  small  stones 
alternating  with  layers  of  large  ones.  Between  the  Great 
and  Little  Colorado  there  is  a  chain  of  arenaceous  hills, 
upon  the  summ,  .  of  which  are  immense  ruins  of  pueblos 
and  estufas  every  way  similar  to  those  we  have  described." 
(Vol.  i.  p.  385.)' 

Even  from  our  necessarily  imperfect  account  of  these 
interesting  monuments  in  the  distant  West,  which  we  have 
relegated  to  the  intermediate  epoch,  the  reader  can  not  have 
failed  to  perceive  that,  if  not  strictly  homogeneal  in  charac 
ter,  they  have  certain  broad  features  in  common.  No  simi 
lar  structures  are  to  be  found  elsewhere  on  the  continent. 
Nevertheless,  according  to  the  traditions  of  the  local  Indians, 
the  whole,  without  exception,  resulted  from  the  paternal 
solicitude,  and,  in  some  instances,  from  the  talismanic 
powers,  of  Montezuma,  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  Mexican 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  GT3 

incas,  whoso  memory  they  cherish  with  a  childlike  devo 
tion,  looking  forward  to  the  time  of  his  reappearance  in 
their  midst  with  as  much  pride  and  confidence  as  did  the 
Britons  of  old  for  that  of  King  Arthur,  when  he  will  re- 
assume  both  his  legal  and  pontifical  authority,  expel  the 
intruders  from  his  scattered  dominions,  and  restore  every 
thing  in  them  to  its  pristine  condition.  But  after  disinte 
grating  the  mythic  element  from  the  legends  of  the  Indians, 
the  residuum  is  generally  of  little  worth.  All  the  structures 
in  question  are  manifestly  much  older  than  the  Aztec  dy 
nasty.  Between  the  simple  round  houses  in  the  West  and 
the  stately  edifices  in  Mexico  there  is  no  analogy  whatever. 
The  former,  as  we  have  already  suggested,  are  the  most 
primitive  hitherto  discovered  in  North  America,  and  their 
prototype  most  probably  was  the  ordinary  tent  of  the  Tar 
tar.  To  this  day  that  wanderer  from  the  Asiatic  heights 
not  only  arranges  his  camp  in  the  form  of  a  circle,  but  also 
surrounds  it  with  a  mound  of  earth,  to  preserve  his  family 
and  his  cattle  from  the  depredations  of  neighboring  tribes 
and  the  nocturnal  attacks  of  wild  beasts.  The  common 
dwelling  of  the  Chinaman  is  constructed  on  a  similar  princi 
ple,  and  was  derived,  no  doubt,  from  a  similar  source. 

Those  remains  which  we  propose  to  refer  to  the  earliest 
epoch  (an  arrangement,  however,  which  is  not  strictly 
legitimate,  much  less  scientific,  but  only  adopted  here  for 
conveniency '  s  sake)  are  much  more  diversified  in  their 
character,  as  well  as  more  widely  diffused,  than  the  objects 
already  pointed  out.  They  comprise  various  descriptions 
of  earth-works,  stone,  and  other  defenses,  circuses,  temples, 
obelisks,  wells,  embankments,  artificial  meadows,  and  high 
roads  ;  besides  multifarious  works  of  art,  such  as  sculptures, 
masks,  and  statuettes  in  obsidian  and  clay,  terra-cotta 
vases,  ornaments  for  the  person,  implements  of  war,  do 
mestic  utensils,  tools,  &c.  Not  the  whole  of  these  things 
exclusively  appertained  to  the  aboriginal  colonists  of  North 
America  ;  some  belong  to  their  immediate  or  near  descend 
ants,  and  others  again  to  later  descendants,  who  have  not 
unfrequently  added  to,  or  otherwise  modified,  the  labors  of 
their  predecessors — the  earth-works  more  especially — to  suit 


674:  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

their  own  particular  requirements,  or  in  accordance  with 
the  prevailing  customs,  religious  and  political,  of  their  day. 
Obviously  it  is  impossible  in  this  place  to  describe  at  any 
length  these  manifold  vestiges  of  long  extinct  populations,  or 
even  to  complete  the  enumeration  of  them.  We  shall  select, 
therefore,  such  only  as  will  best  serve,  in  our  judgment,  to 
illustrate  the  natural  history  of  civilization  in  the  New 
World  anterior  to  its  conquest  by  the  Old. 

Of  the  earth-works,  the  first  both  in  order  of  time  and  of 
interest,  are  the  mounds,  usually  raised  on  the  alluvion  of 
a  lake,  river,  or  stream,  and  sometimes  covering  from  tAvo  to 
eight  acres  of  ground,  and  exceeding  one  hundred  feet  or 
more  in  height.  Their  well-defined  order  of  succession 
probably  indicates  the  main  routes  taken  by  the  primitive 
occupants  of  the  country.  It  has  been  said  that  they  may 
be  counted  "  by  thousands  and  by  tens  of  thousands."* 
They  vary  so  much  in  their  external  features  and  construc 
tion  as  almost  to  defy  classification.  Some  are  conical,  some 
pyramidal,  some  dome-shaped,  and  others  again  in  the  form 
of  animals,  birds,  and  reptiles  ;  a  few  resemble  the  figure  of 
a  man.  They  are  scattered  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  increasing  in  number,  size,  and  grandeur  as  they 
descend  farther  south.  But  they  are  nowhere  so  systemat 
ically  arranged  as  in  the  great  valleys  of  the  Mississippi 
and  Ohio.  In  the  extreme  western  and  northeastern  States 
of  the  Union  they  are  comparatively  rare,  whilst  Canada  is 
totally  destitute  of  them.  Contrary  to  the  general  rule  in 
the  Old  World,  the  American* mounds  are  not  simply  tumuli 
erected  in  honor  of  the  dead  ;  they  were  destined  to  various 
and  very  opposite  uses ;  e.  g.,  they  served  for  "high  places," 
for  temple  foundations,  for  sacrificial  altars,  for  observa 
tories,  as  well  as  for  sepulchers.  Both  anterior  and  subse 
quent  to  the  Spanish  conquest,  many  of  them,  more  partic 
ularly  in  the  Gulf  States,  were  crowned  with  the  palaces  of 
caciques  and  other  illustrious  personages,  which  afterward 
served  for  their  tombs  or  cenotaphs ;  and  which  accounts  in 

*  It  is  proper  to  mention  that,  in  the  judgment  of  the  most  eminent  geologists,  the 
stratified  mounds  in  the  Western  States  are  not  the  works  of  man,  but  thy  results  of 
diluvial  and  fluviatile  action. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  675 

some  measure  for  their  superior  construction,  as  well  as  for 
their  better  state  of  preservation.  In  the  provinces  farther 
south,  every  known  variety  of  the  pyramidal  mound  lias 
been  discovered,  from  the  more  simple  dagoba  or  tope,* 
common  in  Ceylon  and  Hindostan,  to  the  loftier  structure 
which  in  its  primitive  grandeur  must  have  rivaled  the  most 
famous  in  Egypt.  In  the  north,  bordering  on  the  great 
lakes,  two  very  opposite  types  occur — namely,  the  dome- 
shaped  and  the  emblematical,  both  constructed  of  earth. 
The  first  resembles  in  every  respect  the  well-known  Keltic 
barrows  of  this  country,  but  are  sometimes  on  a  scale  equal 
to  those  of  the  Scandinavian  nations ;  the  second  are  quite 
unique,  and  have  been  described  not  inaptly  as  "  immense 
bassi-relievi  carved  on  the  soil  by  the  hands  of  giants." 
Their  origin  is  unknown,  but  the  relics  found  within  them 
betoken  a  very  high  antiquity.  Locally  each  is  called  a 
totem,  a  corruption  of  dodaim,  an  Algonquin  term  signifying 
"town-mark."  In  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  the  mounds  are 
in  shape  both  conical  and  pyramidal,  of  larger  dimensions 
and  more  symmetrical  than  elsewhere,  excepting,  of  course, 
those  in  Mexico  and  other  centers  of  more  advanced  civili 
zation.  Nevertheless,  between  the  last-mentioned  and  the 
countless  earth-mounds  of  Ohio  there  are  such  close  analo 
gies  as  to  make  it  highly  probable  that  both  originated  with 
the  same  people,  although. probably  both  were  not  erected 
in  the  same  era. 

For  the  purposes  of  historical  deduction  the  sacred  and 
sacrificial  mounds  are  far  more  important  than  any  others 
of  the  series.  The  former  abound  in  Alabama,  Georgia, 
and  Florida,  and  in  the  great  valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
whilst  the  latter  are  restricted  to  no  particular  local- 

*  "The  ancient  edifices  of  Chichen,  in  Central  America  (remarks  Mr.  Hardy,  the 
missionary),  bear  a  very  striking  resemblance  to  the  topes  of  India.  The  shape 
of  one  of  the  domes,  its  apparent  size,  the  small  tower  on  the  summit,  the  trees 
growing  on  the  sides,  the  appearance  of  masonry  here  and  there,  the  shape  of  the 
ornaments,  and  the  small  doorway  at  the  base,  are  so  exactly  similar  to  what  I  have 
seen  at  Anarajapoora  (the  ancient  capital  of  Ceylon),  that  when  my  eyes  fell  on  the 
engravings  of  these  remarkable  ruins  I  supposed  that  they  were  presented  in  illus 
tration  of  the  dagobas  of  Ceylon."  (Eastern  Jfonachism,  p.  222.)  The  date  of  the 
oldest  of  the  Singalese  dagobas  is  :>00  B.  c. 


676  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

ity,  being  met  with  almost  as  frequently  in  the  north  as 
in  the  south.  "In  some  instances,"  observes  Mr.  Squier, 
"they  are  terraced,  or  have  successive  stages;  but  what 
ever  their  form,  whether  round,  oval,  octangular,  square, 
or  oblong,  they  have  invariably  flat  or  level  tops  of 
greater  or  less  area."  They  are  usually  approached  by  im 
posing  graded  avenues,  and  encompassed  by  ramparts  of 
earth  or  walls  of  Cyclopean  masonry.  Some  of  these  tem 
ple-mounds  are  upon  a  truly  gigantic  scale.  That,  for  in 
stance,  at  Cahokia,  in  Illinois,  is  reported  to  be  700  feet 
long,  500  feet  wide  at  the  base,  and  90  feet  in  height ;  its 
solid  contents  have  been  roughly  estimated  at  20,000,000 
cubic  feet.  An  immense  tetragonal  terrace  has  been  reared 
by  the  side  of  it,  which  is  reached  by  means  of  a  talus. 
This  mound  is  constructed  with  as  much  regularity  as  any 
of  the  teocallis  in  the  south,  and  was  originally  cased  with 
stone  (some  American  archaeologists  maintain  with  brick), 
and  surmounted  with  on^  or  more  buildings.  The  sacri 
ficial  mounds,  which  are  peculiar  to  the  New  World,  are 
much  less  imposing  structures  than  the  temple-mounds. 
Each  is  crowned  with  a  symmetrical  altar  of  burnt  clay  or 
stone,  on  which  are  deposited  numerous  relics,  in  all  in 
stances  exhibiting  traces  of  their  having  been  exposed  to 
the  action  of  fire.  They  are  still  occasionally  used  in  the  re 
ligious  ceremonies  of  the  Indians  encamped  near  their  sites. 
The  art  of  castrametation  appears  to  have  been  more  ex 
tensively  as  well  as  more  successfully  practiced  in  ancient 
times  by  the  nations  of  North  America  than  by  their  more 
advanced  contemporaries  of  the  Old  World.  In  no  quarter 
of  the  latter,  at  all  events,  are  there  so  many  of  such  com 
plicated  military  monuments  to  be  found.  From  the  Alle- 
ghanies  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  a  perpetual  succession  of 
vast  intrenched  camps  and  colossal  fortifications,  in  earth 
and  stone,  follow  the  entire  route.  Every  eminence  is 
defended,  as  well  as  every  delta  formed  by  the  junction 
of  two  streams.  Redoubts  and  breastworks,  ramparts  and 
circumvallations,  mounds  of  observation,  and — anachronis 
tic  as  it  seems — casemates  (as  in  the  ruins  of  Marietta,  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Muskingum)  attest  equally  to  the  number, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  677 

the  skill,  and  the  industry  of  the  population  which  con 
structed  them.  The  most  perfect  and  characteristic,  as  well 
as  the  most  eminent  of  these  stupendous  defenses,  are  to  be 
met  with  in  the  State  of  Ohio.  A  brief  description  of  those 
in  the  county  of  Licking  must  here  suffice  : — 

''Between  the  delta  formed  by  the  Newark  and  the  Rac 
coon  there  is  a  perpendicular  table-land  about  forty-five 
feet  high,  upon  which  regular  fortifications  of  great  extent 
are  built.  On  the  west  side  of  the  platform  is  an  octangular 
fort  inclosing  a  space  of  about  forty  acres,  with  walls  about 
nine  feet  in  height,  and  of  equal  breadth.  This  fort  was 
entered  by  eight  gates  about  five  yards  in  width,  each  pro 
tected  by  a  tumulus  placed  in  the  interior  in  front  of  the 
entrances.  Two  parallel  walls  lead  to  another  circular  fort 
placed  southwest  of  the  first,  covering  a  space  of  twenty- 
two  acres.  Proceeding  toward  the  south,  you  see  an 
observatory  that  commands  almost  all  the  extent  upon 
which  these  divers  constructions  are  erected.  Beneath  the 
observatory  a  secret  passage  leads  to  the  bank  of  the  Rac 
coon.  Farther  to  the  right  is  a  third  fort,  also  circular,  of 
about  twenty -six  acres,  with  an  interior  moat,  out  of  which 
the  earth  was  taken  to  form  the  walls  of  the  fort,  which  are 
about  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  high.  Two  other  parallel 
walls,  very  distant  from  each  other  at  this  place,  run  to  the 
north,  gradually  diminishing  their  distance,  and  terminate 
at  another  fort,  of  quadrangular  shape,  twenty  acres  in  ex 
tent.  These  four  different  forts  are  connected  by  rather  low 
walls,  and  in  the  center  is  a  shallow  pond,  covering  a  super 
ficies  of  150  or  200  acres,  which  probably  afforded  water  to 
the  flocks  collected  within  the  wide  inclosure.  Towers  of  ob 
servation  are  placed  from  distance  to  distance  on  the  rising 
points  of  the  plateau." 

As  already  intimated,  the  objects  of  primitive  art  and 
utility  which  have  been  discovered  in  the  ruins  of  build 
ings,  or  exhumed  from  the  tumuli,  are  extremely  miscel 
laneous  in  their  character ;  differing  according  to  the 
resources  of  the  particular  locality  and  the  genius  of  the 
various  natives.  In  the  southern  and  northwestern  prov 
inces  greater  mechanical  skill  and  superior  taste  are,  as  a 


678  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

rule,  perceptible  in  every  description  of  handiwork.     But 
two  classes   of  objects   are   equally  distributed   over  the 
whole  continent ;  namely,  ornaments  for  the  person  in  cop 
per,  and  various  utensils  in  pottery.     Copper,  in  its  virgin 
state,  obtained  from  the  vicinity  of  the  great  lakes,  and 
hammered  into  the  forms  of  bracelets,  anklets,  axes,  mauls, 
&c.,  appears  to  have  been  in  very  general  use  from  an 
early  period.     Silver,  lead,  and  iron  were  also  worked,  but 
on  a  limited  scale  ;  while  brass  and  bronze,  the  former  in 
the  north  and  the  latter  in  the   south,   were  more  exten 
sively  employed.     A  few  years  ago,  the  corpse  of  a  war 
rior  was  discovered  in  one  of  the  sepulchral  mounds  in  the 
streets  of  Marietta,  Ohio,  with  the  remains  of  a  baldrick 
or  buckler,  composed  of  copper,  overlaid  with  a  thick  plate 
of   "silver,"   lying  across   his  breast.      By  his  side  were 
several  broken  pieces  of  copper  tubing,    "  filled  with  iron 
rust,"— all,   in   fact,   that   remained   of  his   scabbard   and 
sword.     A  piece  of  iron  ore,    "  which  had  the  appearance 
of  having  been  vitrified,"  was  likewise  found  with  them. 
In  reference  to  this  discovery,  Mr.  Squier  remarks  :   "  These 
articles  have  been  critically  examined,  and  it  is  beyond 
doubt   that  the   bosses  are  absolutely  plated,  not  simply 
overlaid,  with   silver."      But  we   can   hardly  accept  this 
conclusion.      The    effect    described    was    produced    more 
likely  by  chemical  action ;   in  other  words,  the  metals  had 
become  partially  amalgamated  by  the  lapse  of  time.     The 
presence,  however,  of  oxydized  steel  or  iron,  as  well  as  a 
specimen  of  "vitrified  iron  ore,"  in  the  same  monument, 
is  a  much  more  interesting  and  important   fact   than   the 
other  ;  it  betokens  an  advanced  knowledge  of  metallurgy 
in  very  primitive   times— a   knowledge  which   must  have 
been  lost  to  succeeding  generations,  and  long  anterior  to 
the  age   of  the    conquest.     Iron  was   then  absolutely  un 
known  in  the  New  World,  excepting  to  one  solitary  tribe, 
established  at  the  mouth  of  the  La  Plata,  whose  arrows  and 
spears  were  tipped  with  it.     But  of  all  the  aboriginal  arts, 
that  of  pottery  had  attained  to  the  highest  degree  of  perfec 
tion.     The  terra-cotta  vases  have  been  compared  in  form 
with   the   choicest  antique    specimens   in   Europe.     Those 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  C79 

found  in  the  pueblos  and  wells  of  Mexico  u still  retain" 
(says  the  Abbe  Domenecli)  "a  very  perfect  varnish;  they 
are  ornamented  with  brilliant  paintings,  lines,  scollops, 
frogs,  butterflies,  tortoises,  and  monkeys'  heads."  In  the 
States  to  the  east  of  the  Mississippi  they  are  almost  equally 
excellent.  Yet  it  has  been  questioned  whether  the  inhabit 
ants  were  acquainted  with  the  potter's  wheel.  Besides  a 
large  assortment  of  cinerary  urns,  many  of  Old  World 
types,  arrow-heads  of  rock  crystal,  agate  and  silex,  copper 
and  stone  axes,  hatchets,  gouges  and  chisels,  knives  in 
obsidian,  perforated  shells— some  from  the  Gulf  shores,  and 
others  from  the  southern  coasts  of  India— the  most  ancient  of 
the  mounds  have  also  yielded  bracelets  of  brass,  smooth  and 
polished,  rings  and  tubes  of  the  same  material,  various 
ornaments  for  the  person  in  silver,  pipes  of  terra-cotta,  slate, 
and  steatite,  rude  sculptures  in  wood,  and  finer  sculptures 
in  more  durable  materials,  representing  tropical  quadru 
peds,  birds,  fishes,  &c. 

"The  arts  of  taste  and  luxury  may  decline  and  perish 
through    the  violence,    the    revolutions,    and   disasters    to 
which  nations  are  exposed ;  but  the  arts  necessary  to  life 
can  not  be  lost  by  a  people  who  has  once  known  them." 
But  this  maxim  of  Principal  Hobertson  has   again  been 
abundantly  contradicted  in  the  social  history  of  the  New 
World.     All  Spanish  writers  at  the  time  of  the  conquest 
concur  in  describing  the  Indians  generally  as  an  intelligent 
and  industrious,  an  inoffensive  and  religious  people,  as  well 
in  the  interior  as  on  the  sea-board  of  the  continent,     Since 
the  occupation  of  the  northeastern  provinces  by  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  the  aborigines  have  degenerated  so  greatly  from 
their  primitive    condition,   and   diminished   so   rapidly  in 
number,  as  to  make  their  total  extinction  within  a  very 
limited  period  a  matter  of  absolute  certainty.      Two  cen 
turies  ago,  the  population  north  of  the  confines  of  ancient 
Mexico  amounted  to  17,000,000  souls;  it  is  now  less  than 
2,000,000.      Alcoholic    liquors,    epidemical    diseases,    and 
forced  emigrations,    have    aggravated  this  frightful  mor 
tality.      Yet,   notwithstanding   their   deportation,    and   llio 
various  calamities  incidental  to  it,  many  of  the  surviving 


680  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

families  of  the  red-skins  have  preserved  in  their  new  settle 
ments  some  knowledge  of  the  several  arts  that  were  prac 
ticed  "by  their  more  fortunate  ancestors.  From  the  remotest 
times,  agriculture  appears  to  have  been  systematically  pros 
ecuted  in  the  western  hemisphere  on  the  largest  scale. 
The  former  vast  populations  on  the  upper  valleys  of  the 
Mississippi  and  Ohio  were  probably  dependent,  in  part,  if 
not  wholly,  on  the  northern  aborigines  for  their  necessary 
supplies  of  corn.  The  configuration  and  extent  of  their 
''garden-beds,"  or  farms,  more  especially  in  the  States  of 
Indiana,  Wisconsin,  and  Michigan,  are  clearly  discernible 
to  this  day,  and  are  reported  to  be  "laid  out  with  all  the 
neatness  and  symmetry  of  modern  husbandry."  Some  of 
these  ' '  garden  beds ' '  cover  an  area  of  several  hundred 
acres.  Similar  skill  and  industry  are  observable  in  the 
arrangement  and  cultivation  of  the  lands  belonging  to  the 
Delawares  and  other  expatriated  tribes  on  the  banks  of  the 
Canadian  rivers,  and  on  the  prairies  of  Kansas.  So  likewise 
with  the  primitive  arts  of  pottery  and  glass-making,  spinning 
and  weaving,  each  of  which  is  still  extensively  practiced  by 
the  Pimas  and  other  tribes.  Even  to  the  present  day, 
according  to  the  report  of  the  latest  traveler  among  them, 
the  Navajos,  Tunis,  and  the  Jemez,  manufacture  woolen 
and  cotton  tissues,  which  are  highly  prized  by  their  white 
neighbors.  There  is  no  authenticated  instance,  we  believe, 
of  any  Indian  tribe  or  family  having  lapsed  into  "  a  state 
of  nature."  All  have  been  more  or  less  contaminated — and 
some,  like  the  powerful  and  highly  civilized  Natchez,  hope 
lessly  ruined  and  degraded — by  contact  with  the  Par  this 
mendaciores  infesting  their  country ;  but  none,  as  yet,  have 
sunk  into  absolute  barbarism.  Numbers  excepted,  they 
are  now  in  many  respects  what  they  were  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  conquest  of  the  New  World  by  the  Spaniards, 
and  its  gradual  occupation  by  successive  races  of  white 
men,  have  checked  the  development,  but  not  destroyed  the 
primitive  institutions  of  the  Indians.  For  aught,  indeed, 
that  can  be  urged  to  the  contrary,  they  have  been  stationary 
for  a  much  longer  period  ;  and  having  been  excluded  from 
intercourse  with  the  outer  world,  have  become  at  length, 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  681 

what    we    find    them,   a  fossilized    people,   like    that    of 
China. 

That  the  tribes  of  New  Mexico  inherited  a  civilization, 
more  or  less  perfect,  from  extinct  races  which  occupied  that 
country  before  them,  is  an  indisputable  fact.     No  barbarous 
nation  or  nations  could  have  executed  the  structural  monu 
ments  that  have  been  partially  described,  or  have  fabricated 
the  multifarious  works  of  art  that  are  daily  brought  to  light. 
Both  the  one  and  the  other  establish  the  early  existence  of  a 
settled,  industrious,  and,  to  some  extent,  cultivated  people. 
Whence,  then,  did  the  people  derive  their  practical  knowl 
edge  of  the  useful  arts,  and  all  the  concomitants  of  ancient 
civilized  life  ?     Or,  were  these  things  really,  as  not  a  few 
imagine,  of  cis- Atlantic  origin  ?     That  inquiry  depends  upon 
another  and  much  more  pertinent  one — namely,  were  the 
primitive  occupants  of  the  northern  continent  of  America 
immigrants  or  autochthones  ?     Ethnographers,  naturalists, 
archaeologists,  have  attempted  in  vain  to  solve  these  prob 
lems  ;  scarcely  two  of  them  are  of  the  same  opinion.     As 
yet,  no  satisfactory  hypothesis  has  been  framed  for  gen 
eral  acceptance.     Scandinavia,  Gaul,  Mauritania,  Carthage, 
Egypt,  Palestine,  Hindostan,  China,  Mongolia,  Siberia,  and 
even  Wales  and  Ireland,  are  supposed  by  some  to  have  fur 
nished  their  respective  quotas  toward  the  peopling  of  the 
New  World  ;  whilst  others,  including  the  late  Dr.  Morton, 
of  New  York,  have  maintained  that  the  ancient  population 
was  a  distinct  type   of  humanity,  indigenous  to  the  soil. 
That  celebrated  craniologist.  indeed,  went  far  ahead  of  his 
contemporaries,  and  divided  the  aboriginal  American  races 
into  two  families — the  Toltecan  natives  and  the  barbarous 
tribes — 'which  differed,  he  contended,  as  essentially  in  their 
physical    as  in  their  moral  characteristics.     But  since  the 
publication  of  his  well-known  "Crania  Americana,"  sev 
eral  important  ethnological  discoveries  have  been  made  else 
where  on  the  continent,  in  the  south  more  especially,  which 
completely  sweep  away  his  favorite,  or  rather  sole,  criterion 
of  intellectual  capacity — the  development  of  the  facial  angle 
The  traditions  of  the  Indians  are  much  too  vague  and  con 
flicting  to  resolve  a  doubt,  much  less  to  establish  a  theory, 


682  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

in  the  matter  of  their  ancestry.  True,  some  of  them— as,  for 
example,  the  Algonquins,  the  Athapascans,  the  lowas,  and 
the  Pirn  as,  all  widely  separated  from  each  other— uniformly 
point  to  the  rising  sun  as  the  direction  whence  their  fore 
fathers  came  ;  but  this  motion  may  only  indicate  that  they 
migrated  from  the  eastern  extremity  of  the  continent,  and 
not  from  the  eastern  hemisphere.  In  some  instances,  it  un 
doubtedly  means  no  more  than  that  they  are  the  boasted 
posterity  or  the  adopted  children  of  a  divine  personage, 
who  is  supposed  to  have  emanated  from  the  great  luminary. 
The  Quiches  alone  have  preserved  any  thing  like  a  definite 
account  of  their  origin  ;  and  what  makes  this  fact  the  more 
remarkable  is,  that  they  have  been  established  in  Central 
America  from  immemorial  time.  According  to  their  earliest 
traditions,  their  progenitors  traveled  from  the  east,  making  a 
perilous  journey  through  ice-fields  and  in  protracted  dark 
ness  ;  from  which  circumstance  it  has  been  inferred  by  the 
Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  and  others,  that  they  must 
necessarily  have  passed  into  the  American  continent  either 
by  some  Arctic  route,  or  by  the  Aleutian  Isles  in  the  depth 
of  winter.  To  ourselves  this  tradition  appears  more  curi 
ous  than  important.  Visitors'  tales  of  frost-bound  seas,  and 
of  days  without  a  sunrise,  would  naturally  make  a  very  deep 
impression  upon  the  minds  of  a  people  confined  within  the 
tropics;  who,  in  the  course  of  time,  would  not  unlikely 
associate  such  extraordinary  phenomena  with  the  personal 
history  of  their  remote  ancestors,  and  thus  cast  a  thicker 
veil  of  mystery  over  it,  or  add  a  fresh  marvel  to  it.  Of  the 
innumerable  tribes  or  families  of  Indians  still  in  existence, 
not  one  has  any  conception,  much  less  any  traditional 
knowledge,  of  a  single  country  in  the  Old  World.  The 
geographical  notions  of  the  most  intelligent  among  them 
are  bounded  by  their  own  horizon.  So  far  as  is  now 
known,  the  ancient  Mexicans  were  the  solitary  exceptions 
to  this  rule.  That  they  crossed  over  from  Asia  by  the 
Aleutian  Isles,  about  the  eleventh  century  of  our  era.  is  a 
fact  established  as  well  by  the  declaration  of  the  last  of 
their  Iiicas  to  his  Spanish  conquerors,  as  by  a  curious  geo- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  683 

graphical    chart    of   their    migration    preserved  by     Bet 
urini.  * 

"Dim  as  these  traditions  are  (observes  Mr.  Scholecraft), 
they  shed  some  light  on  the  thick  historical  darkness  which 
shrouds  the  period.  They  point  decidedly  to  a  foreign,  to 
an  oriental  if  not  Shemitic,  origin.  Such  an  origin  had  been 
inferred  from  the  first.  At  whatever  point  the  investigation 
has  been  made,  the  eastern  hemisphere  has  been  found  to 
contain  the  physical  and  mental  prototypes  of  the  race. 
Language,  mythology,  religious  dogmas,  the  very  style  of 
architecture,  and  their  calendar,  as  far  as  it  is  developed, 
point  to  that  fruitful  and  central  source  of  human  disper 
sion  and  nationality." 

Whilst  allowing  there  has  been,  for  ages,  a  continuous 
emigration  from  the  east  of  Asia — a  fact,  indeed,  which  is 
abundantly  evidenced,  as  well  by  the  physical  character 
istics  of  the  Indian  tribes  occupying  the  mighty  deserts  in 
the  north  and  northwest  as  by  their  manners,  customs,  and 
traditions,  which  so  closely  resemble  those  of  the  Mongols 
on  the  neighboring  continent— -it  is,  we  think,  equally  de 
monstrable  that  other  colonists,  more  civilized  than  wander 
ing  hordes  of  Tartars,  found  their  way  thither  directly 
across  the  Pacific.  In  possession  of  the  magnet,  the  most 
ancient  of  the  Eastern  nations  boldly  navigated  the  wide 
ocean  in  vessels  of  great  burden  ;  while  as  yet  the  nations 
in  the  west  were  timidly  following  the  sinuosities  of  their 
coasts  in  shallow  canoes  or  on  ruder  rafts.  Some  of  the 
natives  of  India,  like  the  " godlike"  PhaBacians  whom  Ho 
mer  extols,  were  enterprising  merchants  and  hardy  mariners 
from  the  remotest  antiquity.  And  so,  no  doubt,  were  the 
maritime  populations  of  the  Eastern  Archipelago.  If  the 
oldest  Japanese  maps  are  to  be  depended  on,  their  voyages 
formerly  extended  to  Java,  and  on  the  north  toBehring's 
Straits,  and  to  the  coast  of  America,  which  they  called 
Foosang — a  name  by  which  it  was  also  known  to  the  Chi 
nese  long  prior  to  the  Christian  era. 

The  oldest  traditions  of  the  Peruvians,   the  Brazilians, 

*  Mr.  Fergusson  holds  that  the  Toltecs  represent  the  Esquimaux,  and  that  the 
Aztecs  were  Red  Indians ;  but  we  can  not  discover  any  ground  for  this  theory. 


684  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

and  the  Araucanians  (the  aborigines  of  Yaldivia),  refer  to 
the  arrival  in  their  countries  respectively  of  illustrious 
strangers  who  came  from  afar,  across  tlie  ocean.  Only  on 
the  supposition  that  more  frequent  intercourse,  by  water, 
was  maintained  between  the  several  nations  of  antiquity 
than  is  usually  conceded  by  modern  ethnographers  and 
others,  is  it  possible  to  account  for  the  intermixture  of  races 
and  the  similarity  of  customs  and  institutions  observable  in 
different  quarters  of  the  globe.  For  example,  families  that 
physically  approximate  in  type  to  the  red- skins  of  North 
America  have  been  discovered  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa, 
on  the  Island  of  Madagascar,  on  the  South  Australian  con 
tinent,  as  well  as  scattered  throughout  Polynesia.  And  so, 
too,  a  very  close  conformity  existed  between  the  religious 
creeds  and  practices  of  the  Etrurians  and  the  Aztecas.  In 
Italy  and  America  human  sacrifices  were  customary  at  the 
graves  of  illustrious  chieftains.  In  the  former  country  they 
were  superseded  by  gladiatorial  exhibitions — which  were 
also  introduced  into  Mexico— but,  as  in  Etruria,  were  only 
used  upon  certain  religious  occasions.  With  both,  too,  the 
olive-branch  was  the  symbol  of  peace.  These  analogies 
might  be  almost  indefinitely  extended.  The  calendars  of 
the  two  people  were  nearly  alike ;  the  one  calculated  the 
length  of  the  year  at  365  days,  5  hours  and  50  minutes,  the 
other  at  ten  minutes  less.  Like  other  nations  of  antiquity, 
they  both  believed  that  at  the  end  of  certain  astronomical 
cycles  periodical  changes  in  nature  would  occur,  and  these 
were  watched,  therefore,  with  intense  anxiety  and  alarm. 
The  passage  of  the  Pleiades  across  the  meridian  was  an 
nounced  to  trembling  multitudes  in  Mexico  by  the  simul 
taneous  lighting  of  innumerable  beacon-fires  on  the  observ 
atories  and  hill -tops ;  and  the  reappearing  of  the  great 
luminary  in  the  morning,  which  confirmed  their  lease  of  life, 
was  the  signal  for  mutual  congratulations  and  rejoicings. 
That  momentous  holiday  corresponded  with  the  festival  of 
Isis,  which,  according  to  Herodotus,  originated  under  pre 
cisely  similar  circumstances. 

These  parallelisms  link  the  primeval  history  of  America 
with  that  of  the  Old  World,  and  the  further  we  prosecute 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  6S5 

them  the  evidence  of  the  fact  becomes  proportionately 
stronger,  till  at  length  it  is  impossible  to  resist  it.  It  was  a 
maxim  of  the  traveler  Clarke,  that,  by  proper  attention  to 
the  vestiges  of  ancient  superstition,  we  are  enabled  to  refer 
a  whole  people  to  their  original  ancestors,  with  more  cer 
tainty  than  by  observations  made  upon  their  language  ; 
because  the  superstition  is  engrafted  upon  the  stock,  but  the 
language  is  liable  to  change.  As,  therefore,  with  the  Hin 
doos,  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  Scythians,  and  their  offshoots 
in  Europe,  so  with  all  the  tribes  of  the  northern  continent, 
from  Nicaragua  to  the  borders  of  Lake  Superior,  as  well  as 
throughout  New  England,  the  adoration  of  the  sun,  as  the 
symbol  of  divine  intelligence,  has  prevailed  from  the  earliest 
epoch  to  this  day. 

:'  It  may  be  traced  in  America  (says  Mr.  Squier)  from  its 
simplest  or  least  clearly  -defined  form,  among  the  roving 
hunters  and  squalid  Esquimaux  of  the  north,  through  every 
intermediate  stage  of  development,  to  the  imposing  systems 
of  Mexico  and  Peru,  where  it  took  a  form  nearly  corre 
sponding  with  that  which  it  at  one  time  sustained  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ganges  and  on  the  plains  of  Assyria." 

Associated  with  Sabsean  worship  in  former  times  was  that 
of  the  lingham  or  phallus.  This  well-attested  fact  leaves 
little  room  for  doubting  that  the  aboriginal  Americans  de 
rived  their  religious  system  in  part  from  the  East.  The  wor 
ship  of  the  lingham  was  flourishing  in  the  cities  of  Pomeco 
and  Tlascala,  in  Mexico,  at  the  period  of  the  conquest  ; 
and  Mr.  Stephens  observed  at  Uxmal,  in  Yucatan,  certain 
ornaments  upon  the  external  cornice  of  several  large  build 
ings,  the  meaning  of  which  was  too  plainly  sculptured  to  be 
misunderstood.  (Travels,  vol.  i.,  p.  181.)  Nor  was  this  re 
volting  worship  restricted  to  the  territories  just  indicated  ; 
it  appears  to  have  been  equally  prevalent  in  the  Gulf  States, 
and  as  far  north  as  Tennessee,  where  innumerable  charac 
teristic  images  have  been  plowed  up  ;  some  formed  of 
clay,  and  others  carved  out  of  a  kind  of  amphibolic  rock, 
the  toughest  of  all  stony  substances. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  the  Oriental  nations  acknowledged 
originally  but  one  object  of  devotion,  the  sun,  with  which 


686  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  " 

they  presently  associated  the  doctrines  of  the  reciprocal  prin 
ciples  of  nature — doctrines  which  passed  from  India  into  Ethi 
opia  and  Egypt,  thence  into  Asia  Minor,  and  so  into  Greece 
and  Rome — it  is  impossible  to  withhold  from  the  inhabitants 
of  the  western  hemisphere  the  coveted  distinction  of  the  high 
est  antiquity,  when  we  find  their  remote  ancestors  possess 
ing  the  same  system  of  theology,  and  adopting  the  same 
objects  of  worship,  as  the  most  ancient  and  cultivated  peo 
ple  of  the  Old  World.  With  almost  all  the  aborigines, 
there  is  a  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  belief  in  a  Supreme 
Being ;  of  an  extensive  polytheism,  based  in  its  origin  upon 
the  principle  of  divine  emanations  ;  of  a  belief  in  the  immor 
tality  of  the  soul  and  its  future  state  ;  and  in  the  transmi 
gration  of  spirits.  The  agreement  between  their  ritualistic 
observances  is  equally  remarkable.  They,  too,  had  sacred 
ablutions  and  fasts,  sacrifices  and  expiatory  self-punish 
ments.  Notwithstanding  what  has  oftentimes  been  urged 
to  the  contrary,  this  congruity  of  religious  ideas  and  prac 
tices  in  both  hemispheres  is  of  so  decisive  a  character  as 
to  demonstrate  a  single  primitive  source.  "  We  can  not," 
remarks  Sir  William  Jones,  "justly  conclude  by  arguments 
preceding  the  proof  of  facts,  that  one  idolatrous  people 
must  have  borrowed  their  deities,  rites,  and  tenents  from 
another,  since  gods  of  all  shapes  and  dimensions  may  be 
framed  by  the  boundless  powers  of  imagination,  or  by  the 
frauds  and  follies  of  men,  $  in  countries  never  connected  ; 
but  when  features  of  resemblance,  too  strong  to  have  been 
accidental,  are  observable  in  different  systems  of  polytheism, 
without  fancy  or  prejudice  to  color  them  and  improve  their 
likeness,  we  can  scarcely  help  believing  that  some  connec 
tion  has  in  immemorial  time  subsisted  between  the  several 
nations  which  have  adopted  them." 

There  are  now  no  means  of  determining  at  what  particular 
epoch  in  the  world's  history  the  worship  of  the  Lingham  in 
India,  of  Peor-Apis  in  Egypt,  of  the  Phallus  in  Greece,  or 
Priapus  in  Rome,  originated.  But,  according  to  the  re 
ceived  chronology  of  the  Bible,  the  wTorship  of  Baal-Peor 
prevailed  among  the  Moabites  1450  B.  c.  (Numb.  xxv.  3), 
or  long  before  it  was  received  into  Europe.  From  the  re- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  687 

mains  which  are  still  in  existence,  it  may  have  passed  into 
America  at  a  time  coeval  with  its  introduction  into  Egypt. 
And  this  fact  brings  us  to  a  still  higher  point  in  the  primi 
tive  history  of  the  continent, 

Pyramidal  piles  of  earth  and  stone  are  the  peculiar  marks 
"by  which  we  may  discover  the  sites  of  the  earliest  settle 
ments  of  mankind.  The  idea  of  such  piles  first  appeared  in 
the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  and  culminated  in  the  valley 
of  the  Nile.  Whatever  their  forms,  or  wherever  situated,  in 
Asia  or  in  Africa,  one  condition  is  common  to  them  all :  in 
tended  primarily  for  astronomical  observatories,  the  sides  of 
each  accurately  correspond  with  the  cardinal  points.  This  is 
also  the  case  with  the  pyramids  of  America.  In  determin 
ing  the  epoch  of  the  aboriginal  migration  to  that  continent, 
this  remarkable  co-extension  or  analogy  again  carries  us 
back  to  that  period  when  mankind,  after  being  dissipated 
in  the  plains  of  Shinar,  had  re-established  themselves  in  the 
different  quarters  of  the  globe.  We  have  already  referred 
to  the  magnificent  pyramidal  structures  of  Mexico ;  which 
excepting  the  shrines,  were  undoubtedly  the  work  of  the 
Toltecans,  if  not  of  an  earlier  people ;  but  be  that  has  it  may, 
there  are  pyramidal  ruins  in  Yucatan  and  Central  America 
of  a  much  more  ancient  date  than  any  to  be  found  elsewhere 
in  the  New  World — so  ancient,  indeed,  as  to  compare  with 
similar  monuments  in  Egypt,  which  are  generally  ascribed 
to  the  Memphite  period.  If,  as  we  believe,  the  New  World 
borrowed  its  designs  for  such  structures,  the  aborigines 
must  have  traveled  to  the  valley  of  the  Nile  for  that  pur 
pose,  rather  than  brought  them  from  the  shores  of  the  Euxine 
and  Caspian  seas — a  circumstance  which,  we  may  remark 
by  the  way,  shows  them  to  have  been  not  only  a  less  culti 
vated  but  a  later  settled  nation  than  the  Egyptians.  Their 
conventional  ideas  of  pictography  and  sculpture  point  to 
the  same  origin.  According  to  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson,  no 
signs  of  progress  from  infancy  to  the  more  advanced  stages 
of  art  are  perceptible  on  the  earliest  monuments  of  Egypt : 
it  was  in  after-times  the  Egyptian  sculptors  bound  them 
selves  so  rigidly  to  conventional  forms  in  the  human  figure. 
And  so  in  America,  the  most  ancient  remains  exhibit  similar 


688  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

characteristics.  The  same  unalterable  forms  satisfied  the 
devotion  or  the  taste  of  successive  generations  ;  and  conse 
quently  no  improvement  was  made  upon  them.  In  the 
types  of  primitive  art,  the  New  World  merely  reflected  the 
light  of  the  Old.  Hence,  there  was  no  warmth  or  creative 
power  in  it.  Generation  after  generation  servilely  copied 
each  other,  but  with  gradually  diminishing  skill,  or  in 
almost  the  exact  ratio  of  the  distance  which  separated  them 
from  Central  America  and  Yucatan,  the  earliest  seats  of 
civilization  on  the  continent.  That  Africa,  not  the  East, 
was  the  original  source  of  their  inspiration — perhaps  about 
the  age  of  the  fourth  Egyptian  dynasty — may  be  inferred, 
partly  from  the  peculiar  situations,  internal  economy,  and 
identical  embellishment  of  the  structures  in  question,  and 
partly  from  the  most  primitive  mode  of  sepulture  observable 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  them.  The  pile  is  invariably 
erected,  for  the  purpose  of  sacred  ablutions,  in  close  prox 
imity  to  water ;  either  on  the  bank  of  a  stream,  or  on  the 
shore  of  a  lake,  or,  in  the  absence  of  these,  an  artificial 
pond  of  proportionate  dimensions  has  been  excavated  at  its 
base  ;  central  apartments,  for  the  preservation  of  the  sacred 
elements,  reached  by  descending  galleries  at  a  particular 
angle  of  declination,  are  found  in  all  of  them,  as  well  as  a 
secret  communication  with  the  river,  lake,  or  pond,  usually 
by  means  of  a  subterranean  passage  ;  and  lastly,  the  neigh 
boring  valley  or  plain,  as  the  case  may  be,  is  filled  with 
innumerable  catacombs,  in  many  localities  hewed  out  of 
the  solid  rock.  The  great  pyramid  on  the  plateau  of  Caer- 
navaca,  and  known  as  Xochicalco,  "  the  house  of  flowers," 
is  reported  to  be  scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  ordinary 
type  of  those  in  lower  Egypt.  Its  position  and  configura 
tion  show  it  to  be  one  of  the  group  of  adjacent  hills.  It  is 
truncated  and  divided  into  four  terraces. 

"The  intermediate  slopes  (says  Mr.  Norman)  are  covered 
with  platforms,  bastions,  pyramidal  and  rectangular  eleva 
tions  and  stages,  one  above  another,  all  faced  with  large 
porphyry  stones  admirably  cut,  but  joined  together  without 
cement ;  the  perpendicular  height  is  estimated  to  be  from 
300  to  380  feet  high.  The  construction  of  the  stories  is  irreg- 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  689 

ular,  like  the  Egyptian  style  of  architecture  ;  the  lower 
parts  inclining  inward  at  an  angle  of  15°  for  a  short  distance, 
and  then  being  surmounted  with  perpendicular  courses 
projecting  over  the  inferior  portion.  Upon  the  stories  of 
this  pyramid  are  many  figures  sculptured  in  relief,  some 
representing  hieroglyphic  signs,  and  others,  human  figures, 
seated  crossed-legged  in  Asiatic  manner,  and  crocodiles 
spouting  water." 

Want  of  space  precludes  our  pursuing  these  architectural 
analogies  any  further ;  suffice  it  to  say,  therefore,  that  the 
distinction  between  the  earlier  and  later  pyramidal  temples 
of  the  New  World  is  quite  as  remarkable  as  that  between 
the  ancient  Egyptian  structure  and  those  erected  by  the 
Greek  colonists  under  the  Ptolemies.  No  doubt  very  many 
of  the  earliest  piles  have  been  modified  in  subsequent  ages, 
to  suit  the  particular  necessities  or  tastes  of  the  people  ;  yet, 
in  every  such  instance,  the  archaic  type  has  been  but 
slightly  departed  from,  while  the  primitive  example  in  the 
decorations  without,  always  emblematical  of  the  worship 
conducted  within,  has  been  scrupulously  followed  to  the 
last.  This  is  very  apparent  in  the  magnificent  ruins  of 
Yucatan  ;  where,  according  to  the  unanimous  reports  of 
Mr.  Stephens  and  later  travelers  in  that  wonderful  country, 
the  serpent  entwined  about  the  stem  of  the  lotus  is  frequent 
ly  repeated  on  the  friezes  of  the  temples  ;  and  at  Palenque, 
also,  "a  rectangular  square  is  surrounded  by  cloisters  *  * 
and  lighted  by  windows  bearing  the  exact  form  of  the 
Egyptian  face." 

It  is  proverbial  among  transatlantic  travelers,  that  he 
who  has  seen  one  tribe  has  seen  all ;  so  closely  do  individ 
uals  of  every  family  resemble  each  other,  notwithstanding 
their  immense  geographical  dissemination,  and  those  differ 
ences  of  climate  which  embrace  the  extremes  of  heat  and 
cold.  And  after  devoting  a  lifetime  to  the  investigation  of 
their  linguistic  affinities,  the  late  venerable  Albert  Gallatin 
arrived  at  the  same  conclusion.  "However  differing  in 
their  vocabularies,"  he  remarks,  "  there  is  an  evident  simi 
larity  in  the  structure  of  all  the  American  languages. " 
From  whatever  land  the  aboriginal  population  of  North 

44 


690  CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK. 

America  proceeded — from  Eastern  Siberia,  by  the  passage 
of  Behring's  Straits,  or  by  the  Aleutian  Islands  ;  or,  which 
we  conceive  to  be  much  more  probable  from  the  Bactrian 
heights  or  Hindostan,  by  the  Indian  and  Pacific  oceans, — 
the  influence  of  their  genius,  mythology,  and  civilization 
has  not  wholly  declined  to  this  day.  Hence,  many  have 
likewise  been  led  to  believe  in  the  unity  of  the  American 
races.  Without  impeaching  the  justice  of  this  opinion,  so 
far  as  it  affects  the  existing  tribes  of  native  Red  Indians,  we 
can  not  but  think  that  the  aboriginal  occupants  of  the  soil 
disappeared  long  before  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards.  So 
far  as  is  now  known,  the  highest  civilized  races,  at  the  era 
of  the  conquest,  were  restricted  to  the  territory  falling  with 
in  the  10th  and  25th  degrees  of  north  latitude,  and  to  that 
smaller  region  which  is  watered  by  the  Rio  Colorado  and 
the  Rio  Gila,  and  their  tributaries.  Every  other  portion  of 
the  continent,  with  one  notable  exception,  was  occupied  by 
indigent  and  semi-barbarous  tribes,  widely  scattered,  and 
subsisting  for  the  most  part  on  the  produce  of  the  chase. 
The  exception  was  Kentucky,  bearing  the  ominous  appella 
tion  of  "the  dark  and  bloody  ground,"  which  had  long 
been  shunned  by  every  Indian  with  superstitious  dread. 
According  to  the  traditions  of  the  locality,  the  now  attract 
ive  banks  of  the  Ohio  had  been  the  scene  of  a  frightful 
carnage  many  centuries  before  the  arrival  of  the  Europeans. 
An  entire  nation,  both  physically  and  morally  distinguished 
from  the  red-skins — "white  men" — and  wrho  had  been  set 
tled  in  the  country  from  time  immemorial,  were  unexpectedly 
assailed  and  overwhelmed  by  their  enemies.  The  manifest 
incompletion  of  several  of  the  monuments  in  the  valley, 
betokens  a  sudden  cessation  of  labor  on  the  part  of  their 
constructors,  and  thus  far  confirms  the  terrible  reality  of 
the  Indian  legends.  If  those  ill-fated  people  were  not  the 
true  aborigines  of  the  soil,  they  were  undoubtedly  connect 
ed  with  them,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the  peculiarity  of 
many  of  their  structures ;  the  relics  exhumed  from  their 
tumuli ;  and,  above  all,  from  their  primeval  mode  of  sepul 
ture. 

In  the  absence  of  documentary  proofs  and  positive  evi- 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  691 

deuce  it  is  extremely  difficult,  and  often  impossible,  to  de 
termine  the  aboriginal  migrations  of  a  people.    The  primary 
immigrants   of  North  America  are   no   exception  to   this 
general  rule.     They  arrived  in  the  New  World,  we  believe, 
by  various  routes  and  at  various  epochs.     That  compara 
tively  narrow  territory  which  stretches  from  the   Pacific 
Ocean  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  which  is  so  especially  rich 
in  stupendous  and  highly-decorated  monuments,  many  of 
them  bearing  indisputable  marks  of  the  hoariest  antiquity, 
was  the  first  abode  of  the  civilized  nations.     Those  nations, 
as  Mr.  Taylor  argues  on  d  priori  grounds,  brought  their 
civilization  with  them  ;  it  was  not  of  indigenous  growth  ; 
and  the  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  who  has  labored 
long  as  a  missionary  in  that  part  of  the  continent,  as  well 
as  in  the  interests  of  ethnographical  science,  inclines  to  the 
opinion  that  the  Mayas  of  Yucatan  are  their  degenerate  de 
scendants.     Thence  population  was  diffused  and  radiated 
through  the  immense  regions  of  the  North.     Almost  the 
same  combination  of  mounds,   terraces,   and  pyramids  is 
found  throughout  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  as  at  Copan, 
Palenque,  and  Uxmal,  a  fact  which  goes  far  to  prove  that 
the  inhabitants  of  the  interior  derived  their  civil  as  well  as 
their  religious  institutions,  and  such  knowledge  of  the  arts 
as  they  possessed,  from   Central  America.     The   one,   no 
doubt,  was  a  modification  of  the  other.     By  one  of  those 
refluxes  which  were  so  common  in  the  early  history  of  man 
kind,  the  tide  of  population  returned  to  its  original  source, 
but  by  a  circuitous  or  northwesterly  channel ;  commingling 
in  its  passage  with  several  streams  of  later  immigrants  to 
the  continent  by  Behring's  Straits  or  the  Aleutian  Isles. 
Hence  the  cause  of  those  national  changes  and  revolutions 
which  may  be  faintly  traced  on  the  face  of  the  most  primitive 
monuments,  and  which  are  most  distinctly  portrayed  on  the 
more  modern  ones.     The  mild  religious  services  of  the  first 
ages  were  superseded  by  the  sanguinary  ritual  in  vogue  at 
the  time  of  the  conquest ;   political  domination  had  com 
pletely  succumbed  to  sacerdotal  rule  :  the  Inca  added  to 
his  other  functions  those  of  supreme  pontiff.    Such,  in  brief, 
we  take  to  have  been  the  main  courses  of  population  in 


692  CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK. 

North.  America.  No  doubt  there  were  many  intermigra- 
tions  of  more  or  less  importance,  the  order  of  which,  how 
ever,  it  is  impossible  to  indicate.  In  connection  with  these 
we  may  remark,  by  the  way,  that  no  existing  tribe  of 
Indians,  located  east  of  the  Mississippi,  lay  claim  to  the 
monuments  surrounding  them.  According  to  their  several 
traditions,  they  found  them  much  in  the  same  condition  as 
they  now  appear,  when  their  forefathers,  centuries  ago, 
"  arrived  from  the  West"  and  possessed  themselves  of  the 
country.  Old  societies  had  utterly  perished  ages  before, 
leaving  posterity  ignorant  not  only  of  the  extent  of  their 
dominions,  but  also  of  their  very  titles.  The  Atlantic  sea 
board,  from  New  England  to  South  Carolina,  would  seem 
to  have  been  but  sparsely  peopled  till  within  a  compara 
tively  recent  epoch.  The  remains  in  that  long  slip  of  terri 
tory  are  much  less  numerous  than  elsewhere  on  the  conti 
nent,  and,  for  historical  deduction,  almost  valueless.  Near 
ly  the  whole  of  them  are  the  supposed  works  of  the  Iroquois 
and  their  affiliated  tribes,  and  do  not  possess,  it  is  reported, 
"  an  antiquity  very  far  back  of  the  Discovery." 

Thus  have  we  traveled  over  nearly  the  entire  area  of 
North  America,  and  pointed  out,  in  our  necessarily  hasty 
passage,  the  sites  of  the  most  important  and  interesting 
structural  monuments  pertaining,  as  we  believe,  to  at 
least  three  distinct  and  widely  separated  epochs  in  the  pre- 
Columbian  history  of  the  continent.  These  edifices  show, 
partly  from  their  architectural  and  other  peculiarities,  and 
partly  from  the  relics  of  art  discovered  within  and  about 
them,  whence  sprang  their  authors,  the  aboriginal  occu 
pants  of  the  soil.  Their  immediate  origin  is,  and  probably 
ever  will  be,  an  open  question.  It  reaches  back  to  the 
remotest  period  of  human  history,  and  is  involved  in  a  haze 
of  fable.  Nevertheless,  their  creeds,  usages,  and  legends, 
whether  delineated  on  the  monuments  or  reflected  by  suc 
ceeding  generations,  uniformly  point  to  an  Oriental  source  ; 
und  this  is  all  that  can  be  averred  with  absolute  certainty 
concerning  them. — Edinburgh  Review,  July,  1867. 


CALIFORNIA   SCRAP-BOOK.  693 


TRANQUILLITY. 

ONE  day  brings  on  another  day  ;  one  year  follows  another ; 
let  us  take  the  time  as  it  comes.  The  sources  of  all  pleas 
ures  are  in  our  heart  ;  he  who  seeks  them  elsewhere  out 
rages  the  Divinity.  My  projects,  my  desires,  and  my  hopes 
never  go  beyond  my  bosom.  Rivers  roll  rapidly  to  the  sea, 
and  enter  it  without  troubling  it ;  my  heart  is  the  same  ;  all 
the  events  of  the  great  world  would  not  cost  me  a  single 
care.  Truth  is  my  compass  and  moderation  my  helm.  The 
clouds  arise  and  the  clouds  descend  in  rain  without  causing 
me  any  inquietude.  When  they  conceal  the  sun  from  me 
by  day,  I  try  to  look  at  the  stars  by  night.  My  clothes  are 
made  of  common  cloth,  my  food  is  coarse,  and  the  thatch 
which  covers  my  roof  decays  every  year.  But  what  would 
it  have  been  to  me  to  have  been  dressed  out  in  silk  to-day, 
and  to  have  digested  costly  -dishes  \  Golden  roofs  do  not 
keep  out  sleeplessness  and  care  ;  and  were  the  country 
shaken  by  an  earthquake,  how  easily  I  can  gain  my  humble 
door  !  My  patrimony  is  at  the  end  of  two  arms,  and  every 
day  gives  me  its  harvest.  When  it  is  very  hot,  I  cool  myself 
in  the  shade  of  a  tree  ;  and  when  it  is  very  cold,  I  warm 
myself  by  working.  Old  age  is  coming  upon  me,  but  my 
children  are  young,  and  will  repay  me  for  what  I  have  done 
for  them.  If  they  always  observe  truth  and  moderation,  a 
hundred  years  will  not  cost  them  a  sigh.  Whatever  tem 
pests  may  arise,  tranquillity  is  a  port  always  open  to  the  in 
nocent  heart.  Hail,  tranquillity  of  the  soul !  Sweet  charm 
of  life,  kings  would  sell  their  crowns  to  buy  thee  if  they 
knew  thy  value.  Complete  thy  benefits — thou  hast  helped 
me  to  live  well — help  me  to  die  well. 


THE    CLOSING    SCENE. 

THE  following  is  pronounced  by  the  Westminster  Review 
to  be  unquestionably  the  finest  American  poem  ever  writ 
ten  : — 


694  CALIFORNIA  SCPw\P-BOOK. 

WITHIN  the  sober  realm  of  leafless  trees. 


The  russet  year  inhaled  the  dreamy  air ; 
Like  some  tanned  reaper,  in  his  hour  of  ease, 
When  all  the  fields  are  lying  brown  and  bare. 

The  gray  barns  looking  from  their  hazy  hills, 
O'er  the  dun  waters  widening  in  the  vales, 

Sent  down  the  air  of  greeting  to  the  mills, 
On  the  dull  thunder  of  alternate  flails. 

All  sights  were  mellowed  and  all  sounds  subdued, 
The  hills  seemed  farther  and  the  stream  sang  low, 

As  in  a  dream  the  distant  woodman  hewed 
His  winter  log  with  many  a  muffled  blow. 

The  embattled  forests,  erewhile  armed  with  gold, 
Their  banners  bright  with  every  martial  hue, 

Now  stood  like  some  sad,  beaten  host  of  old, 
Withdrawn  afar  in  Time's  remotest  blue. 

On  somber  wings  the  vulture  tried  las  flight ; 

The  dove  scarce  heard  his  sighing  mate's  complaint ; 
And,  like  a  star  slow  drowning  in  the  light, 

The  village  church-vane  seemed  to  pale  and  faint. 

The  sentinel  cock  upon  the  hill-side  crew — 
Crew  thrice — and  all  was  stiller  than  before  ; 

Silent,  till  some  replying  warden  blew 

His  alien  horn,  and  then  was  heard  no  more. 

Where  erst  the  jay,  within  the  elm's  tall  crest, 

Made  garrulous  trouble  round  her  unfledged  young ; 

And  where  the  oriole  hung  her  swaying  nest, 
By  every  light  wind  like  a  censer  swung. 

Where  sang  the  noisy  martins  of  the  eves, 
The  busy  swallows  circling  ever  near — 

Foreboding,  as  the  rustic  mind  believes, 
An  early  harvest  and  a  plenteous  year ; 

Where  every  bird  that  waked  the  vernal  feast, 
Shook  the  sweet  slumber  from  its  wing  at  morn, 

To  warn  the  reaper  of  the  rosy  east ; 

All  now  was  sunless,  empty,  and  forlorn. 


CALIFORNIA  SCRAP-BOOK.  695 

Alone,  from  out  the  stubble,  piped  the  quail ; 

And  croaked  the  crow  through  all  the  dreary  gloom ; 
Alone,  the  pheasant,  drumming  in  the  vale, 

Made  echo  in  the  distance  to  the  cottage  loom. 

There  was  no  bud,  no  bloom  upon  the  bowers ; 

The  spiders  moved  their  thin  shrouds  night  by  night, 
The  thistle-down,  the  only  ghost  of  flowers, 

Sailed  slowly  by — passed  noiseless  out  of  sight. 

Amid  all  this — in  this  most  dreary  air, 

And  where  the  woodbine  shed  upon  the  porch 

Its  crimson  leaves,  as  if  the  year  stood  there, 
Firing  the  floor  with  its  inverted  torch ; 

Amid  all  this,  the  center  of  the  scene, 

The  white-haired  matron  with  monotonous  tread, 

Plied  the  swift  wheel,  and  with  her  joyless  mien 
Sate  like  a  fate,  and  watched  the  flying  thread. 

She  had  known  sorrow.     He  had  walked  with  her, 
Oft  supped,  and  broke  with  her  the  ashen  crust, 

And  in  the  dead  leaves  still  she  heard  the  stir 
Of  his  thick  mantle  trailing  in  the  dust. 

While  yet  her  cheek  was  bright  with  summer  bloom, 
Her  country  summoned  and  she  gave  her  all ; 

And  twice  war-bowed  to  her  his  sable  plume — 
Regave  the  sword  to  rust  upon  the  wall. 

Regave  the  sword,  but  not  the  hand  that  drew 

And  struck  for  liberty  the  dying  blow ; 
Nor  him  who,  to  his  sire  and  country  true, 

Fell  'mid  the  ranks  of  the  invading  foe. 


Long,  but  not  loud,  the  droning  wheel  went  on, 

Like  the  low  murmur  of  a  hive  at  noon  ; 
Long,  but  not  loud,  the  memory  of  the  gone 

Breathed  through  her  lips  a  sad  and  tremulous  tune. 

At  last  the  thread  was  snapped  —  her  head  was  bowed  ; 

Life  dropped  the  distaff  through  her  hands  serene  ; 
And  loving  neighbors  smoothed  her  careful  shroud, 

O  O 

While  death  and  Winter  closed  the  Autumn  scene. 

THOS.  BUCHANAN  READ. 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


PAG« 

ABORIGINAL  Inhabitants  of  California 128 

Address  to  State  Agricultural  Society — Winans. 133 

"  at  San  Joaquin  Valley  Fair — King 104 

Mechanics'  Fair,  San  Francisco — Booth 370 

Pacific  Railroad  Inauguration — Stanford 301 

"  Pacific  Railroad  Inauguration — Crane 304 

Agassiz,  Professor  Louis : — 

A  Continent  covered  with  Ice 216 

Geological  Formation  of  the  River  Amazon 546 

The  Valley  of  the  Amazon 167 

Agriculture  in  Italy — Marsh 161 

"  Address  at  San  Joaquin  Valley  Fair — King 104 

State  Agricultural  Society— Winans 313 

Amazon,  the  Valley  of  the — Agassiz 167 

Amazon  River,  Geological  Formation  of  the — Agassiz 54 

America,  Remote  Colonization  of 629 

America,  First  Inhabitants  of 254 

•America,  North,  Archaeology  of. 655 

Amount  of  Silver  among  Men 367 

Amusing  Experiment  on  Rats 652 

Ancient  Egypt,  Quartz  Mining  in 144 

Ancient  Mint  of  California 299 

Anderson.  Rev.  John ;  An  Artist's  Dream — Quoted  at  close  of  Rev.  T.  Starr 

King's  Address 120 

Anniversary,  'An 176 

Anniversary  of  the  Bear  Flag 270 

Anniversary  (88th)  of  the  Foundation  of  San  Francisco  Mission 60 

Antidote  for  Poison 143 

Antidote  for  Poison-Oak— Dr.  Canfield 41 

Apostrophe  to  Water — Paul  Denton 85 

Archaeology  of  North  America 655 

Arizona,  Biography  of  Father  Kino,  Founder  of 261 

Arizona,  Remains  of  a  Former  Civilization 310 

Atlantic  Cable  Oration — Col.  Baker 17 

Atlantic  Cable  Poem — Ridge ...  483 

Audubon,  John  James ;  A  Toad  Undressing 513 

Azore  Islands,  Description  of  the — Mark  Twain 121 

Baker,  Col.  E.  D. ;  Oration  on  Atlantic  Cable 17 

Banquet,  Great  China  Mail 584 

Banquet.  Chinese  Embassy , 219 

Bay  of  San  Francisco,  Discovery  of 60 

Bear  Flag,  Anniversary  of  the 270 

Beautiful,  The — Goethe 482 

Beautiful  Country,  A 264 

Beecher,  Rev.  Henry  Ward ;  Remarks  on  Hell 249 

Bent,  Lieut.,  discovers  Gulf  Stream  of  Pacific 434 

Benton,  Rev.  J.  A. ;  Oration  at  College  of  California 284 

Bidwell,  Gen.  John ;  How  to  Get  Rich 518 


698  GENERAL  INDEX. 

PAOB 

Big  "Waves 298 

Biography  af  Kino,  Founder  of  Arizona 261 

Biography  of  Junipero  Serra,  Founder  of  California 26 

Blake,  Prof.  "Wm.  P. ;  California  seen  throtigh  a  Geologist's  Eyes 50 

Booker,  Wm.  Lane ;  Remarks  at  Chinese  Embassy  Banquet 244 

Booth,  Hon.  Newton ;  Address  at  Mechanics'  Fair 370 

"         Remarks  at  Chinese  Embassy  Banquet 240 

Bowman,  j.  F.,  Lines  suggested  by  reading  Mark  Twain's  "Letters  from  Pal-.. 

listyne 636 

"                  Wonders  of  the  Coral  Reefs 516 

Brief  History  A 645 

Briggs,  Rev.  M.  C. ;  Stirring  Thoughts 158 

Brook  Trouting  217 

Bryan,  Wm.  H. ;  Great  Canal  of  the  Ganges 462 

Burbarik,  John,  Eulogy  on — Oscar  T.  Shuck 257 

Burlingame,  Hon.  Anson ;  Remarks  at  Chinese  Embassy  Banquet 229 

California 383 

California,  A  Poem — Bayard  Taylor 437 

California,  Aboriginal  Inhabitants  of — Baegert 128 

California,  Ancient  half-civilized  Indians — A.  S.  Taylor 399 

California,  Ancient  Mint  of 299 

California  Children — Bayard  Taylor 480 

California,  Change  in  Climate  of 643 

California,  Early  Cities  of 354 

California.  Early  Scenes  in 504 

California  Earthquakes — Dr.  Trask 274 

California,  Expulsion  of  Jesuits — A.  S.  Taylor 417 

California,  First  Gold  Mining  in 83 

California,  Junipero  Serra,  Founder  of 26 

California,  Kotzebue's  Visit  to 469 

California,  Medical  Topography  and  Epidemics  of — Dr.  Thomas  M.  Logan 295 

California,  Mountains  of 384 

California,  Poets  of. 480 

California  Prices  in  1849 494 

California :   Reminiscence  and  Capabilities — "  Old  Block  " 146 

California  Scenery 442 

California  Seen  through  a  Geologist's  Eyes 50 

California  in  Spring-Time — King 47 

California,  The  Old  Giants  of 486 

California,  War  of  1 846  in 272 

California  Wines— Matthew  Keller 137 

California,  Zodiacal  Light  in 578 

Canal  of  the  Ganges — Bryan 462 

Canals  at  the  Old  Missions 458 

Canfield,  Dr.  C.  A. ;  Poison-Oak  of  California 41 

Casserley,  Hon.  Eugene,  Letter  of,  read  at  Chinese  Embassy  Banquet 236 

Chandos  Picture,  The— Edward  Pollock 98 

Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade — Massett 58 

Child^Land — Lyman  R.  Goodman 444 

Chasms  of  the  Colorado 570 

China  Mail  Banquet,  Speeches  at  the 584 

Chinese  Embassy  Banquet,  Speeches  at  the 219 

City  by  the  Golden  Gate — Ina  D.  Coolbrith 473 

Cla}^,  Henry  ;   National  Men  of  America 103 

Clemens,  Samuel  ("Mark  Twain") ;  Description  of  the  Azure  Islands 121 

Cleopatra,  A  Poem— W.  W.  Story 212 

Climate  of  California 650 

Closing  Scene,  The— Thomas  Buchanan  Read 693 

Commerce  of  the  World 70 

Continent  covered  with  Ice — Agassiz 261 

Coolbrith,  Ina  D. ;  City  by  the  Golden  Gate , 473 


GENERAL   INDEX.  699 


Cooke,  Belle  W. ;  Home  Pictures • 548 

Coral  Reefs,  Wonders  of— J.  F.  Bowman 516 

Correspondence  between  Gen.  J.  C.  Fremont  and  Governor  Castro  in  1846,  just 

before  the  War  of  that  Year 272 

Correspondence  bet  veen  C.  E.  Pickett  and  S.  G.  Higgins  relative  to  Discovery 

of  Gold  in  California 76 

Crane,  Hon.  A.  M. ;  Remarks  at  Inauguration  Ceremonies  of  Pacific  Railroad. .  304 

Cricket,  The , 638 

Cry  of  a  Lost  Soul— Whittier 392 

Cryptograph  Table 73 

Curiosities  of  the  English  Language 199 

Curiosities,  Literary 194 

Curious  Optical  Effect 1 60 

Dead  Sea  of  California,  Mono  Lake 171 

Death  Valley 411 

De  Haas,  W. ;  Pre-Historic  Remains,  &c 647 

Delano,  A.  ("  Old  Block") ;  A  Tale  of  Oregon 618 

California ;  Reminiscence,  &c 146 

Denton,  Paul ;  Apostrophe  to  Water 85 

Depths  of  Mines  in  England 568 

Description  of  the  Azore  Islands — "  Mark  Twain" 121 

Difference  between  Old  and  New  Style  of  Time — Tenuent 577 

Dirge  for  the  Beautiful 520 

Discovery  of  Gold  in  California,  History  of  the 76 

Discovery  of  San  Francisco  Bay 60 

Disunion— Edward  Pollock 599 

Dolliver,  Clara ;  No  Baby  in  the  House 545 

Dorr,  Herbert  C. ;  A  Midsummer  Night 294 

Drove  of  Bulls,  A 1 S4 

Early  Cities  of  California 354 

Early  Scenes  in  California 504 

Earthquakes  in  California — Dr.  Trask 274 

Earthquakes  in  the  Interior 386 

Earthquakes  of  San  Francisco — Dr.  Veatch 476 

'Earthquake  of  New  Madrid,  Mo 330 

Earthquake  Waves  on  the  Pacific 386 

East  and  the  West,  The — Wirithrop 65 

Eells,  Rev.  Dr.  James ;  Happy  Christian  Home 541 

Eldrid^e,  Capt.  Oliver;  Remarks  at  the  China  Mail  Banquet 584 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo ;  A  Philosopher  in  Love 308 

English  Language,  Curiosities  of  the, 199 

Eruptions,  Great  Volcanic 388 

Essay  on  Mathematics — Prof.  T.  C.  Leonard 185 

Eulogy  on  John  Burbank — Oscar  T.  Shuck 257 

Existence  or  Life — King 390 

Expulsion  of  Jesuits  from  California— A.  S.  Taylor 417 

Eye  of  the  Commander,  The — Frank  Bret  Harte 89 

Fair  Tambourinist,  The — Lyman  R.  Goodman 145 

Famous  Mississippi  Scheme 252 

Faraday,  Prof.  M. ;  On  Spiritualism 632 

Felton,  Hon.  John  B. ;  Conclusion  of  his  Address  at  Dedication  of  Mercantile 

Library  Building 439 

Final  Fate  of  the  Universe : 87 

First  Gold  Mine 436 

First  Gold  Mining  in  California 83 

First  Inhabitants  of  ^America 254 

Fitzgerald,  Annie  A. ;  Santa  Margarita 635 

Foundation  of  San  Francisco  Mission 62 

Franciscan  Order,  The 62 

Fremont  and  Sloat — Randolph ...  326 

Ganges,  Great  Canal  of  the — Bryan 462 


700  GENERAL  INDEX. 

PA0B 

Geology,  Lecture  on — Prof.  Whitney 266 

Geology  of  the  Globe 412 

Geological  Formation  of  the  Amazon  River — Agassiz 546 

Geological  Survey  of  California 492 

Gibbons,  Dr.,  of  Charleston,  S.  C. ;  Remote  Colonization  of  America  by  a  Mari 
time  People 629 

Gibbes,  Geo. ;  A  hard-working  California  Author 165 

Goethe ;  The  Beautiful 482 

Glimpses — Emilie  Lawson 540 

Gold  Digging  in  Time  of  Queen  Elizabeth 525 

Gold  Mine,  The  First 436 

Gold  in  the  World,  Bulk  of 391 

Golden  Gate,  City  by  the— Ina  D.  Coolbrith 473 

Golden  Hegira,-  The 487 

Goodman,  Joseph  T. ;  Nevada 405 

Goodman,  Lyman  R. ;  Child-Land 444 

"              "              The  Fair  Tambourinist 145 

Great  Oratorical  Feat 495 

Gulf  Stream,  The 432 

Gulf  Stream  of  the  Pacific 432 

Haight,  Gov.   H.  H.  ;  Remarks  at  Chinese  Embassy  Banquet 228 

Halleck,  Gen.  H.  W. ;  Remarks  at  Chinese  Embassy  Banquet 226 

Happy  Christian  Home — Rev.  Dr.  Bells 541 

Hard-working  California  Author,  A 1 65 

Harlow,  Dr.  John  M. ;  A  Wonderful  Case 395 

Harte,  Frank  Bret ;  The  Eye  of  the  Commander 89 

"              "             The  Pliocene  Skull 430 

Hawaiian  Islands,  The 333 

Hell,  Remarks  On— Beecher 249 

Higgins,  S.  G.  ;   History  of  Gold  Discoveries  in  California 76 

Highton,  E.  R. ;  Remarks  on  Benevolence 141 

History  of  the  Discovery  of  Gold  in  California;  Interesting  Correspondence. . .  76 

Historical  Beauty,  An 510 

Historical  Record  of  Presidents  of  the  United  States 555 

Home  Pictures— Belle  W.  Cooke 548 

How  to  Get  Rich — Gen.  John  Bidwell 518 

Hyatt,  A. ;  Chasms  of  the  Colorado 570 

Inauguration  Ceremonies  of  the  Great  Pacific  Railroad 300 

Incident  in  the  Early  Life  of  the  Vanderbilts 616 

Incident  in  the  Life  of  a  Miner 580 

Indian  Woman's  Love ;   Tale  of  Oregon — Delano 618 

Indians  in  California,  Ancient  Half-Civilized 399 

Interesting  Event  in  California  History 67 

In  Vacation,  A  Poem — Chas.  Warren  Stoddard 649 

Irrigating  Canals  at  the  Old  Missions 458 

Italy,  Agriculture  in — Marsh 161 

Jackson,  Andrew;  National  Men  of  America 102 

Japan,  its  Resources,  &c 521 

Jesuits  in  Spanish  America — A.  S.  Taylor 417 

Jew,  The  Wandering 567 

Job  a  Printer 641 

Katie  Lee  and  Willie  Gray 560 

Keller.  Matthew ;  Letter  on  California  Wines 137 

Kemble,  E.  C. ;  Why  it  Rains 31 

Kendall,  W.  A.;  Salatia 640 

King,  Rev.  Thomas  Starr,  Address  at  San  Joaquin  Valley  Fair 104 

Existence  or  Life 390 

"             Picture  of  California  in  Spring-Time 47 

"             Lecture  on  Yosemite  Valley 446 

Kino,  Founder  of  Arizona 261 

Knights  of  the  Quill 245 


GENERAL  INDEX.  701 


Kotzebue's  Visit  to  California 4G9 

Lake,  Hon.  Delos  ;  Remarks  at  the  Chinese  Embassy  Banquet 223 

Lake  Tahoe,  Graphic  description  of 49G 

Lamb,  Chas. ;  The  Filial  Feeling 579 

Law,  John,  A  Brief  Sketch 252 

Lavvson.  Emilie  ;  Glimpses 530 

Leonard,  Prof.  C.  T. ;    Essay  on  Mathematics 1 85 

Life — Rev.  Dr.  Wadsworth 443 

Life,  a  Literary  Cariosity 194 

Life,  Existence  or — King 395 

Lines  on  an  Autopsical  Examination 638 

Lines  on  a  dried  Wild-Flower 15 

Lines  suggested  by  reading  Mark  Twain's  Letters  from  Pallistyne— Bowman. . .   636 

Literary  Curiosities : — 1 94 

I.  Life 195 

II.  A  Queer  Old  Rhyme 197 

III.  Matrimony 197 

IV.  The  Lord's  Prayer 198 

V.  A  Verbal  Whimsey 199 

VI.  Curiosities  of  the  English  Language 199 

Logan,  Dr.  Thos.  M.  ;  Medical  Topography,  and  Epidemics  of  California 295 

Lord's  Prayer,  The,  A  Literary  Curiosity 198 

Losquereus.  M.  Leo  ;  Origin  of  Western  Prairies 179 

Loss  of  Steamer  San  Francisco 471 

Lost  World,  A 45 

Making  Poetry,  Recipes  for 135 

Mary  Brown,  Poem— L.  F.  Wells 4&1 

Marsh,  Geo.  P. ;  Agriculture  in  Italy 161 

Massett,  S.  C. ;  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade 58 

Mathematics,  Essay  on — Prof.  Leonard 185 

Matrimony,  A  Literary  Curiosity 197 

McAllister,  Hall ;  Remarks  at  China  Mail  Banquet 585 

McClure,  Col. ;  "  Westernisms  " 558 

Meadow  Lake,  Sketch  of— Hon.  F.  Tilford 358 

Mechanics'  Fair,  S.  F.,  Address  of  Newton  Booth 370 

Medical  Topography  of  California — Dr.  Logan 295 

Metals,  Do  they  Grow?   282 

Midsummer  Night,   A— Herbert  C.  Dorr 294 

Milky  Way,  The 438 

Miner,  The,  A  Poom — John  Swett 605 

Minns,  Geo.  W. ;  Mission  of  the  Teachers  601 

Mines  in  England,  Depths  of 568 

Mining  Jury  Dinner,  The 281 

Mission  of  San  Francisco,  88th  Anniversary 61 

Mission  of  the  Teachers— Geo.  W.  Minns 601 

Mississippi  Valley,  Pre-historic  Remains — De  Haas 647 

Model  Report,  A 367 

Mono  Lake,  the  Dead  Sea  of  California 171 

Mount  Diablo,  Allusion  to,  in  King's  Address  at  San  Joaquin  Valley  Fair 104 

Mountains  of  California 3-84 

Mountains,  The  Uses  of— John  Ruskin 641 

Mountain  View,  A 642 

Mosaics,  Mow  they  are  made ." 297 

Names  of  Days  in  the  Week,  Origin  of 279 

National  Men  of  America — Gen.  James  Shields 102 

Nevada,  A  Poem — Joseph  T.  Goodman 405 

New  Madrid,  Great  Earthquake  of 330 

New  Year's  Legend  of  Spanish  California— F.  B.  Harte 89 

Night  Scene  near  Mount  Shasta 467 

No  Baby  in  the  House — Clara  Dolliver 545 

Northern  Gold  Discoveries 486 


702  GENERAL  INDEX. 

PAGB 

Nose  Bleed 557 

Number  of  Useful  Plants 435 

Old  Explorer,  An 460 

Old  Giants  of  California 486 

On  the  Beach — John  Swett 654 

One  of  the  Seven  Wonders  of  the  World  unearthed 309 

Oration  on  Atlantic  Cable  in  1858 — Col.  Baker 17 

Oration  at  Fifth  Commencement  Exercises  of  College  of  California — Benton 284 

Oration  at  Dedication  of  New  Mercantile  Library  Building   in  San  Francisco — 

Conclusion,  John  B.  Feltori 439 

Oregon.  A  Tale  of— A.  Delano  ("  Old  Block  ") G18 

Oregon  Territory,  How  it  was  Saved  to  the  United  States 133 

Origin  of  Names  of  Days  of  the  Week 279 

Origin  of  Day  &  Martin's  Blacking 501 

Origin  of  the  Western  Prairies — Losquereus 179 

Our  Baby 489 

Pacific  Railroad,  Inauguration  Ceremonies 300 

Parting  Hour,  The — Edward  Pollock 575 

Patron  Saint  of  San  Francisco 61 

Peaks,  Parks,  and  Plains  of  Colorado — Powell 380 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  Prayer  of 631 

Philosopher  on  Love,  A — Ralph  Waldo  Emerson 308 

Pickett,  C.  E. ;  Interesting  Correspondence  with  S.  C.  Higgins,  relative  to  First 

Gold  Discoveries '. .  77 

Picture  of  California  in  Spring- Time — King 47 

Pioneer  Overlanders  of  1841 180 

Pioneer  Society's  Report  on  Death  of  Admiral  Sloat 514 

Pliocene  Skull,  The— Frank  Bret  Harte 430 

Poison  Antidote 143 

Poison-Oak  and  its  Antidote — Dr.  Canfield 41 

Pollock,  Edward,  The  Chandos  Picture 98 

"               "          The  Parting  Hour 575 

"               "          Disunion 599 

"               "          A  Song 30 

Powell.  Prof. ;  Peaks,  Parks,  and  Plains  of  Colorado 380 

Power  of  Sea-Breakers - . . .  246 

Prayer  of  Sir  Robert  Peel 631 

Pre-Historic  Remains  of  Mississippi  Valley — De  Haas 647 

Presidents  of  the  United  States,  with  full  list  of  names  of  all  defeated  Can 
didates 555 

Prices  in  California  in  1849 494 

Quartz  Mining  in  Ancient  Egypt 144 

Quartz  Mining  Two  Thousand  Years  ago 209 

Queer  Old  Rhyme,  a  Literary  Curiosity 197 

Rainy  Day  in  the  Sierra  Buttes 327 

Randolph,  Edmund;  Extract  from  his  Oration  to  the  Pioneer  Society  of  San 

Francisco,  in   1860 326 

Read,  Thos.  Buchanan ;  The  Closing  Scene 693 

Recipes  for  Making  Poetry 135 

Remarkable  Escape  of  Eminent  Men 247 

Remarkable  Masonic  Incident 100 

Remarks  on  Hell — Beecher 249 

Reminiscences  of  Commodore  Stockton 603 

Requiem  of  the  Year — Winans 535 

Results  of  the  State  Geological  Survey 492 

Rhodes,  W.  H. ;  Song  by  Edward  Pollock 30 

Ridge,  John  R. ;  Poem  on  Atlantic  Cable 482 

Rosalie,  A  Poem— Col.  B.  F.  Washington 378 

Ruby  Heart,  The— E.  R.  Sill 503 

Ruskin,  John ;  Uses  of  Mountains 641 

Salatia— W.  Kendall.  .                                                                640 


GENERAL   INDEX. 


San  Francisco  Twenty  Years  Ago.     (In  1848) G06 

San  Francisco  Bay.  Discovery  of 60 

San  Francisco  Earthquakes — Dr.  Veatch 47tJ 

San  Francisco  Mission,  88th  Anniversary GO 

San  Francisco,  Patron  Saint  of G 1 

San  Joaquin  Valley - 490 

Santa  Anna,  Sketch  of  his  Career 40G 

Santa  Margarita — Annie  A.  Fitzgerald 635 

Schiller ;   Three  Words  of  Strength 653 

Schoolcraft,  Henry  R. ;    an  Old  Explorer 460 

Scout  Boat  on  the  Lookout , 393 

Sea-Breakers,  Power  of 246 

Secret  Writing,  The  Cryptograph  Table 72 

Serra.  Junipero,  Founder  of  California * 26 

Shields,  Gen.  James  ;  National  Men  of  America 102 

Shoshone  Falls  of  Idaho 507 

Shnck,  Oscar  T. ;   Eulogy  on  John  Burbank 257 

Shrubbery  about  the  Homestead 615 

Shufeldt,  "Geo.  A. ;  Underground  Streams 561 

Sic  Vita G25 

Sierra  Buttes,  a  Rainy  Day  in  the 327 

Significant  Names 394 

Sill,  E.  R. ;  The  Ruby  Heart 502 

Silver,  Amount  of,  among  Men — Van  der  Weyde 367 

Sketch  of  Meadow  Lake — Hon.  F.  Tilford 358 

Sloat,  Admiral ;  Pioneer  Society's  Report  on  his  Death 514 

Sloat,  Fremont  and-^-Randolph's  Oration 326 

Smith,  The  Mormon  Leader „ 543 

Soldiers'  Farewell,  The 512 

Song— Edward  Pollock 30 

Spanish  America,  Jesuits  in — A.  S.  Taylor 417 

Spanish  California,  A  Legend  of— F.  B.  Harte 89 

Spcec'.i  of  E.  R.  Highton,  Esq.,  on  Benevolence 141 

Speeches    of  Capt.  Oliver  Eldridge 584 

Hall  McAllister,  Esq 585 

Ex-Governor  Leland  Stanford 590 

Rev.  Dr.  A.  L.  Stone,  and 592 

Rev.  Horatio  Stebbins,  at 595 

Great  China  Mail  Banquet 584 

Speeches  of  Wm.  Lane  Booker,  Esq 244 

Hon.  Newton  Booth 240 

Hon.  Anson  Burlingame 229 

Hon.  Delos  Lake 223 

Hon.  Edward  Tompkins 238 

Gov.  Henry  H.  Haight 228 

Gen.  II.  W.  Hal  leek,  and 226 

Chih  Tajen,  Chinese  Embassador,  at 234 

Chinese  Embassy  Banquet 219 

Spiritualism,  Prof.  Faraday  on 632 

Stanford,  Gov.  Leland;  Remarks  at  Inauguration  Ceremonies  of  Pacific  Rail- 

"  road  at  Sacramento 301 

Remarks  at  the  Great  China  Mail  Banquet 590 

Stearns,  Abel ;  Letter  relative  to  First  Gold  Discoveries 83 

Stebbins,  Rev.  Horatio  ;  Remarks  at  Mail  Banquet 595 

Stirring  Thoughts — Rev.  M.  C.  Briggs I58 

Stockton,  Commodore,  Reminiscences  of 603 

Stoddard,  Chas.  Warren  ;  Tamalpais 443 

"  "  In  Vocation ' 649 

Stone,  Dr.  A.  L. ;  Remarks  at  China  Mail  Banquet 592 

Sweet-Brier,  The — Mary  Viola  Tingley 5S2 

Swett,  John ;  On  the  Beach 654 


704  GENERAL  INDEX. 


Swett,  John ;  The  Miner 605 

Tahoe  Lake,  Graphic  Description  of 497 

Tale  of  Oregon— A.  Delano  ("  Old  Block") 618 

Taraalpais — Charles  Warren  Stoddard 443 

Taylor,  Alex.  S. ;  Jesuits  in  Spanish  America 417 

Traces  of  Ancient  Half-Civilized  Indians  in  California 319 

Taylor,  Bayard ;  California 437 

(i  California,  Children 480 

Teachers,  The  Mission  of— Geo.  W.  Winans 60 1 

Tennent,  Thos. ;  Old  and  New  Style  of  Time 477 

Three  Words  of  Strength — Schiller 653 

Thrilling  Adventure  with  a  Burglar. 440 

Tilford,  Hon.  Frank ;   Sketch  of  Meadow  Lake 358 

Tingley,  Mary  Viola  ;  The  Swe'et-Brier 582 

Tin  Mines,  The  Discovery  of 472 

To  the  Loadstone  of  My  Life 651 

Toad  Undressing,  A — Audubon 513 

Tompkins,  Hon.  Edward ;  Remarks  at  Chinese  Embassy  Banquet 238 

Touching  Tribute  to  Woman 653 

Traces  of  Ancient  Half- Civilized  Indians  in  California — A.  S.  Taylor 399 

Tranquillity 692 

Trask,  Dr. ;  Record  of  Earthquakes 274 

Underground  Streams — Shufeldt 561 

Universe,  Final  Fate  of  the 87 

Useful  Plants,  N-umber  of 435 

Uses  of  Mountains — John  Ruskin 641 

Valley  of  the  Amazon 167 

Valuable  Table 364 

Van  Der  Weyde.  Dr.  P.  H. ;   Amount  of  Silver  in   Use 367 

Vanderbilts,  The,  Early  Incidents  concerning 616 

Veatch,  Dr.  John  A. ;  San  Francisco  Earthquakes 475 

Velocity  and  Force  of  Wind 548 

Verbal  Whimsey,  A — A  Literary  Curiosity 199 

Volcanic  Eruptions 388 

Vulture,  T.'ie 532 

Wadswortli,   Rev.  Dr.  Chas.;   "  Life" 443 

Wandering  Jew,  The 567 

War  of  1846  in  California 272 

Washington,  Col.  B.  F: ;   "  Rosalie" 378 

Water,  Apostrophe  to— Paul  Denton 85 

Webster,  Daniel ;  National   Men  of  America 102 

Wells,  L.  F.  ;  Mary  Brown 481 

Western  Prairies,  Origin  of  the — Losquereus 179 

Westernisms — Col.  McClure 558 

Whitney,  Prof.  J.  D. ;  Geology 265 

Whittier,  John  G.,  Cry  of  a  Lost  Soul 392 

Why  it  Rains— E.  C.  Kemble 31 

Winans,  Hon.  Joseph  W. ;  Requiem  of  the  Year 535 

"  "         "         "      Address  on  Agriculture 313 

Wind,  Force  and  Velocity  of 548 

Wines  of  California— Matthew  Keller 137 

Winthrop,  Theodore  ;  The  East  and  the  West 65 

Woman,  A  Touching  Tribute  to 653 

Wonderful  Case,  A 395 

Wonders  of  the  Coral  Reefs — J.  F.  Bowman 516 

Wonders  of  the  World  unearthed,  One  of  the  Seven  309 

Yosemite,  A  Lady's  account  of  a  trip  to 550 

Yosemite,  Selections  from  Lecture — King 446 

Zodiacal  Light  as  seen  in  California 578 


OVERDUE. 


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